One answer to this dilemma is to eliminate the Industrial Funding Fee as the funding method for the GSA Schedule Program. Dramatic, yes. But money could be funneled from the notoriously ineffective Small Business Administration to fund the GSA Schedule Program and PTACs. The government's so-called small business "advocates" at SBA typically see their mission as helping small business in general, not individual small businesses, and thus offer very little assistance to vendors looking to break into the federal market.

Eliminating IFF funding would also eliminate the inherent bias GSA has for large businesses that produce a lot of IFF dollars. Revamping the Schedule system so that it is not required to pay its own way is not a new idea. Unfortunately it is such a good idea that actually moving it to fruition may be a dream. It would take Congressional action, and Congress usually does the expedient or politically popular thing rather than the right thing.