The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul: What Contractors Should Track
The FAR is being rewritten in a large, multi-part effort. Here is how to follow it without reading every proposed rule.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation is the subject of a large revision effort, published as a series of proposed and interim rules rather than a single document. For a contractor, the practical question is not the politics of the effort but which parts of the rulebook are changing and on what timetable.
Why it is published piece by piece
A rewrite of this size is released in parts, because each part of the regulation governs a different subject and each has to go through its own notice-and-comment process. That is good news for tracking: the changes arrive as discrete Federal Register documents, each with its own effective date and comment window, instead of one undifferentiated change.
What to watch
Three things matter more than the rest. First, the parts that map to the clauses and requirements you actually work under — if your contracts turn on a specific subpart, watch that subpart. Second, the effective dates, because a rewrite published in parts means the old and new language can coexist for a period. Third, the comment-close dates on the proposed portions, because those are the parts still open to influence.
A workable routine
Sort the changes by the part of the regulation they touch, then read only the ones that touch your work. The register on this site groups every Title 48 document by the supplement that issued it (FAR, DFARS and the civilian supplements) and shows the citation and dates on each entry, which is the starting point for that sort. Because every entry links the primary source, the next step — reading the part itself — is one click away.
What not to do
Do not treat the volume as a signal that nothing is knowable until the effort finishes. Each published rule has its own legal effect on its own effective date. A contractor who waits for the whole rewrite to settle will have missed the individual changes that already apply.