Vendors, along with state and local governments, have urged GSA to allow them use the GSA Schedules program to spend federal grant money on pre-negotiated Homeland Security contracts. GSA has indicated that it will respond to such requests sometime this summer. If allowed, only federal grant money could be spent. Furthermore, federal buyers would be closely scrutinized to ensure that the federal grant monies were being spent for the purposes for which they were intended.

With the exception of the Information Technology Schedule (also known as the "IT70 Schedule contract"), only federal agencies can buy through the Schedules program. In 2002, Congress passed legislation which opened the IT70 Schedule contract to state and local governments. This practice is known as "cooperative purchasing." It has been reported that more than $239 million in IT products and services were purchased by state and local governments through the IT70 Schedule in Fiscal Year 2006.

In response to recent events, Congress passed legislation which allows for cooperative purchasing (under all of the Schedule contracts) to prepare for, or recover from, a natural disaster or terrorist attack. With respect to non-exigent circumstances, Congress will most likely have to pass legislation opening all schedules to state and local governments.