SAM.gov is down the day my registration renewal is due. What do people actually do?

You should check the Federal Service Desk for official announcements regarding SAM.gov outages and contact them for assistance. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 4.1102(a) requires an offeror to be registered in SAM.gov when submitting an offer or quotation and at the time of award. If your registration lapses, a contracting officer may not be able to excuse it because the FAR is clear that an active registration is a prerequisite for award. You can document the outage by taking screenshots of the SAM.gov outage page with timestamps and noting the duration of the unavailability. This documentation could support a request for an extension from the contracting officer, though an extension is not guaranteed. For state and local contracts, you would follow the specific state procurement portal's vendor guide and contact their help desk for guidance on outages. Each state has its own vendor registration system, like Team Georgia Marketplace for example, separate from SAM.gov.