President Trump recently released two Executive Orders (EO) confirming the rumblings of a forthcoming "overhaul" of government contracting regulations. The details of those EOs are below.
On April 9, 2025, EO 14265 "Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base" directed changes to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and other updates focused on improving the Department of Defense's (DoD's) "speed, flexibility, and execution." The highlights of that EO include:
- Acquisition Process Reform. Calls for a plan on reform of the acquisition process within 60 days, which must:
- (a) Encourage the use of commercial solutions as a first priority, while also prioritizing other existing methods, such as Other Transaction Authority (OTA), to expedite acquisitions.
The EO indicates that, starting upon issuance of this EO, the DoD shall prioritize its use of commercial solutions and OTAs in pending DoD contracting actions as well as all DoD contracting actions that are pursued while the plan directed by this EO is under consideration.
- (b) Include a review of "support roles" within the acquisition workforce to eliminate unnecessary tasks, reduce duplicative approvals, and centralize decision-making.
Significantly, "these reviews should also include evaluations of program managers, contracting officers, engineering authorities, financial managers, cost estimators, and logisticians."
- Internal Regulations Review. Directs the DoD to review and revise DoD instructions, implementation guides, manuals, and regulations relating to acquisition in order to:
- (a) Eliminate or revise any unnecessary supplemental regulations or any other internal guidance, such as relevant parts of the Financial Management Regulation and DFARS;
- (b) Where new supplemental regulations or internal guidance are proposed, apply the 10-for-one rule described in the earlier deregulation EO 14192 "Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation," e.g, propose 10 regulations for elimination before creating a new one.
- Acquisition Workforce Reform. Proposes additional training and policies, procedures, and tools on the use of innovative acquisition authorities.
- Major Defense Acquisition Program Review. Directs the completion, within 90 days, of a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) to determine if any such programs are inconsistent with the policy objectives emphasizing speed, flexibility, and execution.
On April 15, 2025, EO 14275 "Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement" directed changes to an even broader range of acquisition regulations, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and its supplements. The focus is similar to EO 14265, with a goal of increasing agility, effectiveness, and efficiency of the procurement system.
The key purpose of this EO is to ensure the FAR contains only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement, and that any FAR provisions that do not advance those objectives are removed. Some of the highlights of this EO include:
- Reforming the FAR. Within 180 days of the date
of this EO, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement
Policy (OFPP), FAR Council, and agency representatives are to take
appropriate actions to amend the FAR to ensure that it contains
only provisions that are:
- Required by statute;
- Otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability;
- Strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system; or
- Protect economic or national security interests.
- Aligning Agency Supplements to the FAR.
- (a) Within 15 days of the date of this EO, agencies must designate officials to work with the OFPP and FAR Council to provide recommendations regarding any agency-specific supplemental regulations to the FAR.
- (b) Within 20 days of the date of this EO, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and OFPP were* to issue a memorandum that would propose new agency supplemental regulations and guidance to promote expedited and streamlined acquisitions. Any such proposals were to adhere to the 10-for-one requirement described in EO 14192 "Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation," e.g., propose 10 regulations for elimination before creating a new one.
*This interim guidance was released on April 17, 2025, and is available at whitehouse.gov.
- Regulatory Sunset. In revising the FAR, the EO directs the OFPP and the FAR Council to consider:
- (a) Amending the FAR so that any provisions that are not required by statute that remain will expire four years after the effective date of the final rule promulgated as a result of this EO unless renewed by the FAR Council;
- (b) Whether any new FAR provisions not required by statute that are promulgated after the effective date of the final rule include the same sunset provision.
This EO further mandates the issuance of interim guidance, as needed, to support reform until the final rules reforming the FAR are published.
Implementation and Timeline.
Preceding the release of these EOs, the General Services Administration (GSA) website briefly featured a webpage previewing the forthcoming changes. That webpage went down shortly after its launch. However, at the time of its informal "premiere," the site foreshadowed a two-phased approach to the regulatory overhaul now directed by these EOs:
Phase 1 was estimated to run until October 2025. As part of that phase, there would be a release of a revised version for each individual FAR part. Those revisions would come out as deviations that agencies could rely on until the FAR revision concluded with a formal rulemaking.
Phase 2 was estimated to begin in October 2025. At that time, the formal rulemaking would commence to finalize the revisions and, hopefully, incorporate the feedback received during Phase 1.
Final Thoughts.
Discussions about reforms to the FAR and its supplements have been ongoing for many years. In 2019, there was a report that included recommendations for changes to the regulations provided by the "Section 809" Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations after the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Public Law 114-92) direction for review.
It is uncertain how many of the forthcoming updates envisioned by these EOs will track those prior initiatives. A recent Fact Sheet from the White House suggests that at least some of the focus of the revisions will be on ensuring that all government contracting regulations comply with ten recent decisions from the Supreme Court, including a focus on less agency-driven requirements and more consideration of cost impacts resulting from regulations. However, the exact nature of all the final updates to the regulations is still an open question for now and will remain that way at least until this October. Taft's Government Contracts team will provide ongoing updates.
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