On August 7, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued a final rule, published in the Federal Register, clarifying that an offeror must be registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM) when submitting an offer and when the contract is awarded.
This revision mercifully ends the confusion that has reigned over the past few years, caused by a revision of the SAM registration requirement that was interpreted to render an offeror ineligible if its SAM registration lapsed at any time between submission of its offer and award.
Previous Amendments to FAR 52.204-7: System for Award Management
In September 2018, the FAR was amended to state that an "offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation, and shall continue to be registered until time of award." Emphasis added.
The 2018 amendment intended to resolve inconsistencies, as some FAR provisions mandated SAM registration at the time of proposal submission, while others required it only at the time of award. The FAR Council sought to clairfy that offerors must be registered both when submitting proposals and when award is made.
However, subsequent interpretations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) added a new layer of complexity. Both bodies construed the amendment to require continuous registration between submission and award. For example, in TLS Joint Venture, LLC, GAO determined that an offeror had to be continuously registered in SAM from the time of offer to award. Similarly, the COFC came to the same result in Myriddian, LLC v. United States and Zolon PCS II, LLC v. United States.
A notable clarification came in a successful bid protest filed by UNICA-BPA JV, LLC., represented by Bass, Berry & Sims PLC. The protest turned on which offer triggers the requirement for an offeror to have an active SAM registration: the initial offer or the final proposal revision.
The GAO found that exclusion was proper where an offeror lacked active registration at initial submission but improper when it maintained an active registration at the time it submitted its final proposal revision. GAO sustained the protest, finding that because the final proposal triggered the requirement, the offeror should have remained in the competition.
To address confusion and the potential lost income and increased costs for both offerors and the government, the FAR Council issued an interim rule in November 2024 that stated, "the offeror must be registered at time of offer submission and at time of contract award but would not be required at every moment in between those two points."
Final FAR 52.204-7: System for Award Management
This final rule adopts the November 2024 interim rule language without change. It resolves the unintended problem created by the 2018 revision and is expected to benefit all businesses, particularly small businesses, seeking to work with the federal government by removing the risk of disqualification for brief lapses in registration between submission and award.
Contractor Considerations
This clarification should reduce bid protest risk related to SAM registration timing, particularly for small businesses and new entrants who may face administrative delays in maintaining continuous registration. While the rule eliminates the strict "continuous registration" interpretation, offerors must still ensure active registration at the time of proposal submission and at the time of award.
Contractors should also ensure their SAM accounts are monitored for expirations or renewal issues, as failure to meet the two required checkpoints could still result in exclusion. Of course, offerors must also confirm that all their representations and certifications on SAM.gov are accurate.
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