Executive Order—FAR 2.0—RESTORING COMMON SENSE TO FEDERAL PROCUREMENT April 15, 2025

FAR 2.0 is coming to a procurement near you. The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) was started over 40 years ago and the FAR alone has over 2,000 pages of regulations. On top of the FAR are civilian agency specific regulations or supplements a/k/a the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that govern certain agencies. For instance, 13 CFR 121 governs the SBA, with 13 denoting SBA and 121 denoting size standards. With the FAR and the CFRs, the regulations are well over 5,000 pages. The Department of Defense has its own set of regulations (DFARS) that govern military procurements and do a few things: (1) mirror the FAR provisions; (2) vary from the FAR provisions and are military specific; and/or (3) cede to the FAR by reference and incorporating it in certain provisions. Here are the basics of the Executive Order for FAR 2.0 “RESTORING COMMON SENSE TO FEDERAL PROCUREMENT” published April 15, 2025.

 FAR Overall

Timeline: 180 days

Mission: Administrator [ Office of Federal Public Procurement Policy], in coordination with the other members of the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council), the heads of agencies, and appropriate senior acquisition and procurement officials from agencies, shall take appropriate actions to amend the FAR to ensure that it contains only provisions that are required by statute or that are otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability, strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system, or protect economic or national security interests.

 CFR/Supplemental Regulations

Timeline: CFR/Supplemental Regulations: 15 days—designate senior procurement official to work with the Administrator and FAR Council to ensure agency alignment with FAR reform.

20 days—Director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with Administrator, shall issue a memo to agencies that provide guidance regarding implementation of the order—to ensure consistency and alignment of policy goals.

10 for 1 requirement—Every Regulation that Stands—10 Eliminated

 The Administrator and the FAR Council shall issue deviation and interim guidance, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, until final rules reforming the FAR are published.

 Regulatory Sunset Considerations

·       (a) Identify all FAR provisions not required by statute that will remain in the FAR;

·       (b) Consider those not required by statute—WILL expire in 4 years after the effective date of the Rule UNLESS renewed by the FAR Council; and

·       (c)  consider whether any new FAR provision not required by statute that is promulgated after the effective date of the final rule promulgated in accordance with subsection (b) of this section should include a provision stating that it will expire 4 years after its effective date unless renewed by the FAR Council.

 In essence, the FAR and the CFRs are being rewritten to more closely adhere to the language of the statute. Congress passes the statute, the agencies write enabling regulations, and life goes on. What has been identified in this and other EOs is an issue being characterized as agency regulatory overreach. That is, agencies are going beyond the statute with implementation of regulations that impose additional or different requirements than the statutes may dictate. In that case, the laws in place are being superseded by regulations—which have long been called more than prolific. This EO means to correct that course of prolific regulation writing and adhere to the statutes Congress passed—to the point of sunsetting/expiring any regulations not explicitly needed for the statute to be implemented.