On April 15, the President signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14275, "Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement," marking the beginning of the most substantial update to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in more than 40 years.
The FAR has grown to exceed more than 2,000 pages of regulations; consequently, guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget stated that the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) are leading a revolutionary overhaul to streamline the federal procurement process.
To simplify the FAR, the overhaul implementation will be conducted in two phases: (1) class deviation guidance and (2) formal rulemaking. A class deviation is the advance version of what is considered during the formal rulemaking process. The FAR Council's model class deviations, for each Part of the FAR, will be published on the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul site, as completed. Agencies are generally expected to revise the FAR model class deviations within 30 days, to reflect any agency-specific changes. The plain language text of the model deviations themselves can be accessed through the FAR Parts and Agency Deviations page by clicking the FAR Part's title. Any Agency-specific changes can be viewed by selecting the dropdown arrow under the FAR Part's issuance date. Once the FAR Council completes issuing model deviation guidance for all FAR Parts, the FAR Council will begin formal rulemaking in accordance with 41 U.S.C. § 1707.
As of July 7, the following parts of the FAR have been revised, along with their corresponding solicitation provisions and contract clauses in FAR Part 52:
- FAR Part 1 – Federal Acquisition Regulation System (5/2/25).
- FAR Part 6 – Competition Requirements (6/27/25).
- FAR Part 10 – Market Research (5/22/25).
- FAR Part 11 – Describing Agency Needs (6/18/25).
- FAR Part 18 – Emergency Acquisitions (6/12/25).
- FAR Part 34 – Major System Acquisition (5/2/25).
- FAR Part 39 – Acquisition of Information and Communication Technology (6/12/25).
- FAR Part 43 – Contract Modifications (6/12/25).
Each part is subject to its own deviation issuances by federal agencies. The FAR Parts and Agency Deviations page provides a drop-down list of agencies that have issued deviations for each part.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
