On December 4, 2024, the House passed the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act, a bipartisan bill that is now before the Senate. Under the SAMOSA Act, federal agencies[1] are directed to assess their current software inventory and management of contracts and software licenses. Agencies then must develop plans to consolidate their software licenses and adopt enterprise license agreements. If the Act passes in the Senate, agencies will have to identify categories of software to prioritize for enterprise licenses and develop mitigation strategies to reduce software license restrictions. The Act also calls for agencies to train their employees in negotiating options within contracts to minimize restrictive license provisions and distinguishing between acquiring commercial software and custom software.
The SAMOSA Act also extends beyond these agency-level initiatives. If the bill becomes law, within two years after its passage, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will develop a strategy for the adoption of government-wide enterprise licenses for widely used software. As noted, only the House has passed the SAMOSA Act. The corresponding Senate bill remains pending since July 2023 when the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs approved its forwarding by unanimous vote. The Senate bill is sponsored by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and co-sponsored by four Republican and two Democrat Senators, indicating bipartisan support for the SAMOSA Act to become law.
The SAMOSA Act leaves a number of questions open. For one, the bill does not provide specific direction on existing software contracts and procurements; it only requires development of agency-specific plans with a focus on obtaining enterprise licenses as the identified categories “come up for renewal or renegotiation.” It also does not address how contracting officials will facilitate fair negotiations to remove common commercial terms the government deems unfavorably restrictive, in light of the general directive in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Department of Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) to procure commercial software on commercial terms.[2]
The SAMOSA Act follows a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report advising federal agencies to track opportunities to reduce software license costs. In January 2024, GAO recommended that agencies track software licenses and compare those licenses to their current inventory, a requirement mandated under the SAMOSA Act.[3] Just this past November, GAO identified restrictive software licensing practices in cloud computing across multiple agencies as an area where the government may reduce costs.[4] Similarly, Senator Joni Ernst recently sent a letter to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, proposed leaders of the future Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), indicating that cloud computing software licenses are a target area of prospective federal government cost cutting.[5]
The SAMOSA Act and these recent GAO reports signal a potential policy shift in federal contracting for software. Contractors should thus be prepared to review their own license agreements with the government and their approach to federal sales.
Thomas Lee, an associate in our Washington, D.C., office, contributed to the writing of this article.
[1] The SAMOSA Act applies the definition of “agency” in 44 U.S.C. § 3502, namely, “any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency,” excluding the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Election Commission, District of Columbia agencies, and government-owned contractor-operated facilities. The Act exempts elements of the intelligence community from its definition of agency and suggests those elements will conduct their own independent assessments.
[2] See FAR 12.212(a); DFARS 227.7202-1(a). These policies make exceptions for terms prohibited by federal law or that otherwise do not satisfy the government’s specific needs – but in such cases where “the Government has a need for rights not conveyed under the license customarily provided to the public, the Government must negotiate with the contractor to determine if there are acceptable terms for transferring such rights.” DFARS 227.7202-3(b).
[3] U.S. Gov’t Accountability Off., GAO-24-105717, Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings (2024).
[4] U.S. Gov’t Accountability Off., GAO-25-107114, Cloud Computing: Selected Agencies Need to Implement Updated Guidance for Managing Restrictive Licenses (2024).
[5] Letter from Joni K. Ernst, U.S. Senator, to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Co-Chairmen, Dep’t of Gov’t Efficiency (Nov. 25, 2024).
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