FAC
2025-03 included the following three items:
FAR Case
2019-015: A final rule amended the
FAR to improve consistency between
procurement and nonprocurement
procedures on suspension and
debarment, based on the
recommendations of the Interagency
Suspension and Debarment Committee. The procurement procedures on
suspension and debarment are covered
in the FAR. The nonprocurement
procedures on suspension and
debarment (i.e., Nonprocurement
Common Rule (NCR)) are covered in 2
CFR part 180 and agency implementing
regulations.
FAR Case
2020-016: A final amended the FAR
to implement changes previously made by the SBA requiring small
business concerns to rerepresent their
size and/or socioeconomic status for
orders placed under multiple-award
contracts under certain circumstances.
FSS contracts are
exempt from this mandatory
requirement; however, the Contracting Officer continues to have the discretion
to require a rerepresentation for an
order. The SBA amended its regulations to
ensure that small businesses qualify for
the applicable size and/or
socioeconomic status associated with
orders placed under multiple-award contracts where size and/or
socioeconomic status were not relevant
to the award of the underlying multiple-award contract. Specifically, the SBA requires
the small
business concerns identified at FAR
19.000(a)(3) to rerepresent their size
and/or socioeconomic status for orders
set aside exclusively for small
businesses that are issued under an
unrestricted multiple-award contract,
except for those with reserves. In
addition, small business concerns must
rerepresent their socioeconomic status
for orders issued under a small business
set-aside multiple-award contract or the
set-aside part of a multiple-award
contract where the orders are further set
aside for a particular socioeconomic
category which differs from the
underlying multiple-award contract or
the set-aside part of the multiple-award
contract.
FAR Case
2023-001: A final rule amended the
FAR to implement regulatory changes made by
the SBA to
add incentives for certain United States
territories under the SBA's mentor-protégé
program. Specifically, the rule implements paragraphs (a) and (d) of section 861 of the John S. McCain NDAA for FY 2019, which add Puerto Rico to the list of territories from which small businesses are eligible for preferential treatment under the mentor-protégé program. In addition, the rule implements paragraphs (a) and (c) of section 866 of the NDAA for FY 2021, which add the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to the list of territories from which small businesses are eligible for preferential treatment under the SBA's mentor-protégé programs. Section 866 also defines a "covered territory business" as a small business concern that has its principal office located in one of the following: (1) the U.S. Virgin Islands; (2) American Samoa; (3) Guam; or (4) CNMI. Sections 861 and 866 created two new incentives for
the mentor-protégé program for mentor-protégé pairs in which the protégé has its principal office located in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or is a covered territory business. Specifically, such a mentor that subcontracts to its protégé is able to receive positive consideration for the mentor’s past performance evaluation and is able to apply costs incurred for training provided to its protégé to its subcontracting plan goals. In addition, this rule implements changes
the SBA made to its regulations to clarify that: (i) subcontracting plans are not required from firms owned by an Alaska Native Corporation because they are treated as small business concerns according to statute; and (ii) prime contractors may rely on a subcontractor’s representations of its size and socioeconomic status unless the prime contractor has reason to doubt the representations.
FAC 2025-04
FAC
2025-04 included the following item:
FAR Case 2020-009: A final rule
amended the FAR to to revise the list of
domestically nonavailable articles at
FAR 25.104(a) by removing the following items from the list: acetylene, black; agar, bulk; anise;
asbestos, amosite, chrysotile, and
crocidolite; bauxite; beef, corned,
canned; beef extract; bephenium
hydroxynaphthoate; cadmium, ores and
flue dust; calcium cyanamide; castor
beans and castor oil; chalk, English;
chicle; cinchona bark; cobalt, in
cathodes, rondelles, or other primary
ore and metal forms; colchicine
alkaloid, raw; copra; crane rail (85-
pound per foot); cryolite, natural;
dammar gum; diamonds, industrial,
stones and abrasives; emetine, bulk;
ergot, crude; erythrityl tetranitrate; goat
hair canvas; goat and kidskins; graphite,
natural, crystalline, crucible grade; hand
file sets (Swiss pattern); handsewing
needles; ipecac, root; iodine, crude;
kaurigum; lac; lavender oil; leather,
sheepskin, hair type; manganese;
menthol, natural bulk; mica;
microprocessor chips (brought onto a
Government construction site as
separate units for incorporation into
building systems during construction or
repair and alteration of real property);
nickel, primary, in ingots, pigs, shots,
cathodes, or similar forms; nickel oxide
and nickel salts; nux vomica, crude;
oiticica oil; olive oil; olives (green),
pitted or unpitted, or stuffed, in bulk;
opium, crude; petroleum, crude oil,
unfinished oils, and finished products;
pine needle oil; platinum and related
group metals, refined, as sponge,
powder, ingots, or cast bars; pyrethrum
flowers; quebracho; quinidine; quinine;
rabbit fur felt; radium salts, source and
special nuclear materials; rosettes;
santonin, crude; secretin; shellac;
sugars, raw; talc, block, steatite;
tantalum; thread, metallic (gold); thyme
oil; triprolidine hydrochloride;
tungsten; wax, carnauba; wire glass;
woods, logs, veneer, and lumber of the
following species: Alaskan yellow
cedar, angelique, balsa, ekki, greenheart,
lignum vitae, mahogany, and teak; yarn,
50 Denier rayon; and yeast, active dry
and instant active dry.
FAC
Other Proposed FAR Revisions
FAR Case 2019-014: A proposed rule would amend the FAR
to incorporate the
NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework) and additional tools
to implement it in order to describe the
workforce knowledge and skill
requirements used in contracts for
information technology support services
and cybersecurity support services in
line with E.O. 13870 ("America’s Cybersecurity Workforce"), which requires agencies to
incorporate the NICE Framework.
FAR Case 2023-006:
A proposed rule would amend the FAR to implement the
Preventing Organizational Conflicts of
Interest in Federal Acquisition Act, which
directs the FAR Council to revise the FAR to
provide and update (a) definitions, including those related
to specific types of OCIs, including
unequal access to information, impaired
objectivity, and biased ground rules OCIs, (b) guidance and illustrative examples
related to relationships of contractors
with public, private, domestic, and
foreign entities that may result in OCIs;
(c) illustrative examples of situations
related to the potential for OCIs.
The statute also requires that the FAR
be revised to provide agencies with tailorable solicitation provisions and
contract clauses to avoid or mitigate
organizational conflicts.
FAR Case
2023-011: A proposed rule would make several amendments
to the FAR to issue policy to
update market research, acquisition
planning, small business specialist
coordination, and to expand the use of set-asides
during the award of, and placement of
orders against, certain multiple-award
contracts, all of this to implement the recommendations of the
OFPP in its memorandum entitled,
Increasing Small Business Participation
on Multiple Award Contracts, dated
January 25, 2024. Subsequently, the proposed rule
was withdrawn and the FAR Case was closed.
FAR Case 2024-007: A proposed rule would amend the FAR to
clarify that a
contracting officer’s decision to set aside
or not set aside an order under a
multiple-award contract is not grounds
for protest. Specifically, the rule would add the
following paragraph (a)(10)(iv) to FAR 16.505:
In accordance with 15 U.S.C.
644(r), a contracting officer’s decision to
set aside or not set aside an order for
small business concerns is an exercise
of discretion granted to agencies and not
a basis for protest. However, this does
not preclude the filing of a protest of
such an order if such a protest would
otherwise be authorized on a separate basis recognized in accordance with
paragraph (a)(10)(i) of this section.
Subsequently, the proposed rule
was withdrawn, the FAR case was closed.
FAR Case 2020-010: The proposed rule entitled "Small Business
Innovation Research and Technology
Transfer" was withdrawn, and the FAR Case was closed.
Department of Defense FAR
Supplement (DFARS)
Final
Rules
DFARS Case
2021-D006: A final rule amended the DFARS to implement
sections of the NDAA for 2021 concerning the Government's
evaluation of contractor business systems, specifically by replacing the term "significant
deficiency" with the term "material weakness," which is now
defined as follows:
Material weakness means a deficiency
or combination of deficiencies in the
internal control over information in
contractor business systems, such that
there is a reasonable possibility that a
material misstatement of such
information will not be prevented, or
detected and corrected, on a timely
basis. A reasonable possibility exists
when the likelihood of an event
occurring is—
(1) Probable; or
(2) More than remote but less than
likely. . . .
DFARS Case 2022-D016: A final rule amended the DFARS to
implement section 815(b) of the NDAA for FY 2012, which, in turn, amended 10 U.S.C. 2321
(currently 10 U.S.C. 3782) by increasing
the validation period for asserted
restrictions on technical data and computer software from three years to six years and also amended 10 U.S.C.
2321 to provide an exception to the
prescribed time limit if the technical data
involved are the subject of a
fraudulently asserted use or release
restriction.
Interim Rules
DFARS
Proposed
Rules
DFARS Case 2024-D002: A proposed rule would amend the
DFARS to amend multiple
DFARS parts to further implement 41
U.S.C. 1908, which requires an
adjustment every five years
of statutory acquisition-related
thresholds for inflation, using the
CPI for all urban
consumers, except for the Davis-
Bacon Act, Service Contract Labor
Standards statute, performance and
payment bonds, and trade agreements
thresholds. As a matter
of policy, DoD is also proposing to use
the same methodology to adjust
nonstatutory DFARS acquisition-related
thresholds. FAR Case
2024–001 proposes comparable changes
to acquisition-related thresholds in the
FAR.
Other
Agencies
Department of Agriculture
The Department
of Agriculture proposed to make .
Bureau of
Industry and Security (Department of Commerce)
Defense Department
The
Department of Education
The
Department of Energy
The DOE .
Department of Homeland Security
The DHS
Department of the Interior
Department of Justice
Department of Transportation
The
DOT .
EPA
Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB)
General Services Administration (GSA)
GSAR
Health and Human Services (HHS)
The
Labor
A
NASA
NASA amended .
OFPP
The
Office of Personnel Management
Small Business Administration (SBA)
A
State Department
The
USAID
USAID
USPS
The Postal Service
published an entirely new set of
rules of practice for appeals before its board of
contract appeals (the PSBCA). The Postal Service also
amended the
rules of the Equal Access to Justice Act
in Postal Service proceedings to clarify
the applicable rule for reconsideration
of a decision on a fee application in
PSBCA
proceedings.
Veterans Affairs
The VA