Temporary Administrative and Professional Staffing (TAPS)

GSA Federal Acquisition Service established the Temporary Administrative and Professional Staffing (TAPS) Master GSA Schedule on November 3, 2000, with ordering authority extending through September 14, 2106. The vehicle is a multiple-award schedule set aside for Total Small Business at the vehicle level, though task orders show a mixed execution pattern across set-aside designations.

The schedule remains nominally active but shows steep ordering decline. Task orders awarded peaked at 604 per year in 2019, fell to 97 in 2020, then collapsed to single digits: 9 in 2021, 8 in 2022, and 7 in 2023. Most recent task-order activity is nearly three years old. The portfolio spans 10,000 task orders with combined potential value of $9.68 billion, of which $1.37 billion (14%) has been obligated.

Task orders executed under TAPS cover temporary professional labor across six subcategories: Automatic Data Processing Occupations; Technical and Professional Occupations; Administrative Support and Clerical Occupations; General Services and Support; Information and Arts Occupations; and Introduction of New Labor Categories for Temporary Services. Recent awards show heavy use for court reporting and transcription services, litigation support analysts, electronic records clerks, and specialized investigator roles, alongside administrative and technical staffing. Individual task-order values typically range from under $1,000 to $600,000-plus, with time-and-materials and firm fixed-price structures both present.

Competition is moderately concentrated. National Associates, Inc. holds 2,169 orders worth $2.25 billion combined potential value; Contemporaries, Inc. holds 739 orders but leads in potential value at $5.91 billion; Neal R. Gross and Company, Inc. holds 989 orders at $18.4 million combined potential. These top three plus Midtown Personnel Inc. and TDB Communications Inc. account for roughly 50% of task-order count. The top five primes by potential value collectively represent 86% of the vehicle's combined value.

Customer concentration is steep. The Department of Health and Human Services—particularly CDC's Office of Acquisition Services, the NIH Office of the Director, and FDA—accounts for a substantial share of task orders. Department of Justice offices, especially U.S. Attorneys' Offices, also feature prominently. Together, the top five customer organizations place approximately 27% of all task orders.

Set-aside execution shows substantial deviation from the vehicle-level small-business reservation: 86% of task orders carry no set-aside designation, while only 53% (5,278 orders) are marked Total Small Business. Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, 8(a), HUBZone, Woman-Owned Small Business, and other set-aside designations each account for 1% or fewer of orders.

With ordering momentum near zero, only 14% of potential value obligated after more than two decades, and most recent awards clustered in 2020 with minimal activity since, pursuit of new work under TAPS carries execution risk. The schedule remains open for new offers but should be evaluated alongside more active vehicle alternatives.

Temporary Administrative and Professional Staffing Services