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.

FAR Case 2025-006: A proposed rule would amend the FAR "to ensure agencies procure straws with the strength and durability of plastic in accordance with the National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws."  Accordingly, a new solicitation provision would require each offeror "to represent that it does not have policies promoting the use of paper straws or penalizing the use of plastic straws, that it will not provide paper straws in performance of the contract, and that any straws provided by the offeror in performance of this contract will have the strength and durability of plastic straws.

Department of Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS)

Final Rules