Revolutionary FAR Overhaul moves to formal rulemaking with first batch of proposed rules
Gettyimages.com/ sefa ozel
By
Nick Wakeman
Four proposed rules covering 13 Federal Acquisition Regulation parts are to be published Tuesday. Small business rules and others are on the way.
The government is finally dropping a large batch of proposed rules on Tuesday to formalize changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
Over a year in the making, the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul aims to strip out regulations not mandated by statute and give acquisition teams greater control and flexibility in how they develop, award and manage contracts.
This first set of proposed rules cover four groups of FAR parts. Several more proposed rules remain under review and one of them is FAR Part 19, which governs small business acquisition.
The first proposed rule includes FAR Parts 1, 2, 4, 33, 39, 40, 52, and 53. A second covers parts 5, 24, 29, and 52.
The third covers Parts 3, 49, and 52. A fourth covers Parts 6, 7, 10, 18, 26, 37, 41, and 52. Part 52 is in all four proposed rules because it essentially is the FAR’s clause library.
The government has set a comment window of 30 days, the bare minimum time period. The clock will start ticking when the proposed rules are published.
The FAR parts covered in these four proposed rules span topics including protests, contract terminations, and audits. Many of the changes give contracting officers more discretion by converting mandatory requirements to actions where COs have the option to act or not.
A second example is that agencies will not be required to publicly announce contract awards worth more than $5.5 million. Agencies were previously required to report awards exceeding $4.5 million.
They “may” announce these awards, but are not required to. This will raise concerns about transparency in government operations.
Formerly a blank and reserved section, Part 40 will now house security requirements. The government is consolidating security requirements from other FAR parts into Part 40.
The rule proposes to reorganize security requirements into three subparts in Part 40: processing supply chain risk information, security prohibitions and exclusions, and safeguarding information.
These include controlled, unclassified information and the government’s "Do Not Buy" list that details companies and products that agencies cannot purchase from.
Part 40 also is an attempt to harmonize security requirements.
Another change is the consolidation of market research, formerly Part 10, into Part 7, which governs acquisition planning. A-76 public-private clauses are being deleted completely from Part 7 because Congress placed a moratorium on them in 2008.
Several more proposed rules are expected in the coming months covering the parts of the FAR that most directly shape how contracts are competed and won.
This includes:
- Part 8, which governs required sources including the GSA Schedules
- Part 12, commercial item acquisitions
- Part 13, simplified acquisition procedures
- Part 15, the rules governing competitive proposals and source selection
- Part 19, small business acquisition
With tight deadlines for the first set of proposed rules, it promises to be a busy summer and fall.