The EO calls for streamlining of the FAR, such that it “contain only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement.” Specifically, the EO directs the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council), the heads of agencies and the appropriate senior acquisition and procurement officials from agencies “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” within 180 days.
Since April 15, additional steps have been taken by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the OFPP and the FAR Council in furtherance of EO 14275. In particular, on May 2, 2025, OMB issued a memorandum addressed to the heads of all executive departments and agencies titled “Overhauling the Federal Acquisition Regulations.” This OMB memorandum reiterated the directives of the EO, and also stated that the OFPP and FAR Council would be launching a website to “inform contractors and interested members of the public of the progress towards development of” a streamlined FAR. Specifically, the memorandum stated the website would include deviation guidance for agencies “with plain language versions of individual FAR parts.” The deviation guidance will streamline the FAR to only cover statutory requirements and limited non-statutory requirements, “when necessary to advance core stewardship principles and practices”.
Furthermore, the website would also include “buying guides with innovative procurement techniques for different phases of the acquisition lifecycle and strategies for specific categories of spend prior to formal rulemaking.” Initially, the buying guides “will focus on...streamlining ... the most popular common spend categories, including information technology (IT), professional services and facilities and construction.” Together the streamlined FAR and buying guides will be referred to as the Strategic Acquisition Guidance (SAG).
To implement the EO and operationalize the May 2 memorandum, on May 6, 2025, the OFPP and FAR Council launched a dedicated site on Acquistion.gov called the “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul” website that includes deviation guidance, which will be released on a rolling basis by FAR part. The website also states buying guides will be added to the site in the near future.
The deviation guidance and buying guides included on the website will have far-reaching implications on the procurement practices of government agencies. We are continuing to monitor this situation closely.
