A Wobbly Bike: Some Initial Thoughts on FAR 2.0

In recent months, the revamping of the FAR has been a big topic of discussion for federal contractors and those who work with them. This project is referred to as FAR 2.0 or the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul or simply RFO. An executive order got the ball rolling, setting forth the mandate to create FAR 2.0 within 180 days from April 15, 2025, which puts the deadline as  October 12, 2025.

The GSA has described its goals with the FAR overhaul by using some interesting metaphors. It says the FAR overhaul will be like a renovation of an old apartment building, taking things down to the studs while preserving the structural integrity of the original design. GSA acknowledged the inevitable growing pains for this adaption process using another metaphor—the “wobbly” phase of learning to ride a bike. As noted in the GSA post: “Let’s be honest—there will be an adjustment period, and it might be uncomfortable. This discomfort is normal. In fact, it’s a necessary part of growth. Remember learning to ride a bicycle? The wobbly phase was frustrating but essential to eventually riding with confidence.”

In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the proposed new parts (and missing old parts) that will be present in the proposed FAR revision. The idea behind this overhaul is to get the FAR back to its statutory roots, simplify the procurement process, and make things easier for all participants in the federal acquisition system. Those awaiting this update are, however, understandably anxious about what this means for a process that, while complicated, is familiar to them. We’ll dig into the motivating concepts and functions of the overhaul process itself, and then give some examples of proposed updated language to give readers a sense of what’s to come.

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FAR Council Removes Rule on Small Business Orders

A couple FAR notices have removed proposed SBA rules relating to orders on multiple award contracts. This withdrawal seems to have the affect of decreasing the overall application of the small business Rule of Two, as discussed here. However, it only impacts the application of the rule of two to orders under multiple award contracts that were not restricted to small businesses. So, it’s impact is relatively narrow.

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Be Careful, FAR Updates Generally Not Retroactive, Says COFC

The United States Court of Federal Claims (COFC) produced another decision focused on SAM registration and related FAR updates. We previously discussed the changes to the FAR no longer requiring constant SAM registration to be awarded a contract. We have also blogged on a recent COFC decision regarding solicitation amendments based on the new FAR rule. But, what happens if the old FAR rule, such as one regarding SAM registration, is still in a solicitation and the agency does not amend the solicitation?

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Switcheroo – FAR Change Allows Agency to Amend Solicitation to Broaden Eligibility for Procurement 

This past November, we observed a change in the rules regarding SAM registration requirements for procurements. Prior to this rule change, both GAO and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) had found that the FAR requires offerors to maintain SAM registration throughout the evaluation period for a procurement. With the rule change, FAR 52.204-7 (the regulation at issue) now only requires that an offeror be registered at the time of offer submission and at the time of contract award. A lapse in SAM registration in between those events, in other words, would not be fatal to an offeror’s proposal. Unfortunately for one company, this resulted in a COFC case that essentially reversed its victory at a prior COFC protest. Today, we’ll look at this second case and what happened.

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Breaking: EO Mandates “FAR 2.0” & Deep Dive Into Federal Procurement Efficiency

Yesterday, the new administration issued a new Executive Order (EO) officially requiring a reformation of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and a thorough review of the federal procurement system in general. Along with related EOs, they direct the Office of Federal Public Procurement Policy (OFPP), the FAR Council, and the heads of and “senior acquisition and procurement officials” from our federal agencies to create the “FAR 2.0”–as it has aptly been deemed. And they have 180 days to do it.

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A Glitch In Time? GAO Denies Late Proposal Protest for Lack of Systemic Outages with Agency System 

Both GAO and the federal agencies take proposal deadlines with the utmost seriousness. We have discussed a few other examples of late proposals being denied by GAO before. Now, we have another one. This time, the protester put forth the argument that its lateness was not its fault. Rather, it was caused by issues with the agency’s proposal receipt system. Unfortunately for the protester, GAO did not accept this argument. Here, we will go into how it arrived at that decision. 

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Compensation for Professional Employees and You: GAO Sustains Where Agency Doesn’t Explain Why Proposed Decreased Compensation is Reasonable

While the federal government uses wage determinations for many occupations that contractors must abide by, things are different with professional occupations such as physicians, accountants, engineers, and (yours truly) attorneys. Contractors generally have more leeway with regard to how they pay their professional employees on a given contract. But it’s not unlimited. This is something that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) didn’t address in its evaluation for a procurement, resulting in a successful GAO protest. In this post, we’ll look at the rules here and what went wrong.

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