Supplement to Federal Procurement Overhaul - Rewriting the Federal Procurement System
FAQs
1. What are the primary purposes of the proposed revisions?
According to guidance published on acquisition.gov, the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (“RFO”) will “return the FAR to its statutory roots, rewritten in plain language, and remove most non-statutory rules” and via “non-regulatory buying guides,” will “provide practical strategies grounded in common sense while remaining outside the FAR.” Further, the guidance provides that the overall RFO goal is “faster acquisitions, greater competition, and better results.”
2. Will companies have the opportunity to comment and provide input relating to proposed revisions?
According to OMB Guidance issued on May 2, 2025 (the “OMB Guidance”), “the FAR Council will post general guidance addressing the deviation process and model deviation text per FAR Part, is it is completed, on the RFO website and will include instructions for informal public comment.” However, the guidance indicates that the FAR Council “will not formally respond to the feedback during the deviation guidance phase, but will consider the input, as appropriate, in the formal rulemaking phase.” During the formal rulemaking phase, the rulemaking process “will be informed by the model deviation text, public input on the text received on the RFO website, operational experience with agency deviations, [ ] agency points of contact [ ], testing of the buying guides, and other appropriate inputs.” It is not clear from the guidance as to what constitutes “other appropriate inputs.”
3. When will the revisions take effect?
The revisions (referred to as “deviations” in the OMB Guidance) will be issued on a rolling basis. For each deviation, the affected agency or agencies must implement the deviation(s) within 30 days after the model deviation text is released. It is not clear whether the term “implement” in this situation means that the agency shall (a) modify all affected contracts within that period, (b) have in place a plan to achieve that objective, or (c) modify its FAR supplement so it is aligned with the deviation within those 30 days.
4. Will the revisions affect contractors’ current contracts?
Under well-established principles, this will depend on whether (a) one or more clauses in the contracts have been revised through the RFO process, and (b) the cognizant contracting officer modifies those current contracts to include the revised clause(s). It is not clear, however, whether each agency will proceed in accordance with well-established principles, or an approach set forth in guidance that flows from the RFO.
5. How will the RFO affect the various FAR supplements?
It is not clear at this point in the RFO process how the various FAR supplements will be affected. The OMB Guidance merely provides that “[a]gencies should prepare to streamline their FAR supplements to minimize regulations that are not based in statute or executive order and align with the FAR Council’s deviation guidance as the FAR is streamlined and reformed.” Note that the OMB Guidance imposes neither a timeline nor a deadline for agencies to streamline or align their supplements with the revised FAR. Further, the OMB Guidance does not indicate how much discretion each agency will have regarding its preparations to streamline their supplements or provide a process for resolving situations in which an agency decides not to streamline or align certain procurement processes.
6. Is the RFO guidance posted online?
Yes. Current guidance can be found at: https://www.acquisition.gov/far-overhaul.