The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul is Upon Us

By Dr. Dolores Kuchina-Musina, PPCM, CFCM, CF APMP, NCMA Fellow

The federal government is making its biggest changes to procurement rules in over 40 years through the “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul,” driven by Executive Order 14275. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the FAR Council are collaborating to streamline the procurement process for government agencies via the development of the
Strategic Acquisition Guidance (SAG).

These guidelines include a completely rewritten FAR and optional buying guides intended to improve how agencies achieve their missions. Further information on the development of the SAG framework can be found in OMB memorandum M-25-26.

This revolutionary effort will:
• Remove non-statutory requirements.
• Rewrite the FAR in plain language.
• Create a faster, more agile, and mission-focused acquisition system.

In the following several issues, Contract Management magazine will cover the overhaul and provide the latest updates as they go live on www.acquisition.gov.

In this issue, we provide the edits taking place with FAR Part 1 - Federal Acquisition Regulations System.

FAR Part 1 - Federal Acquisition Regulations System

As of May 2, 2025, the lined-out document was posted to illustrate the high-level changes that are to be expected to FAR Part 1. The General Services Administration (GSA) also posted its agency deviation. The following NCMA-created chart highlights rewrites for FAR parts 1.1 and 1.2.