Federal Register record

Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 38, 44, and 51

Published 2026-10-28 · by Federal Construction Magazine

Federal Register proposed rule 2026-19162, published 2026-09-18. Comments close 2026-10-19.

The Federal Register published Federal Acquisition Regulation: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 38, 44, and 51 on 2026-09-18. The document is a Proposed Rule from Management and Budget Office, Federal Procurement Policy Office, Defense Department, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, filed as 2026-19162 under FAR Case 2026-003, Docket No. FAR-2026-0003, Sequence No. 1 and published at 91 FR 59406-59474.

Official summary

OFPP, DoD, GSA, and NASA (collectively referred to as the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council or FAR Council) are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Executive Order (E.O.) 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement. The E.O. directs the elimination of excessive acquisition regulations to stop the inefficient use of American taxpayer dollars. The FAR Council is issuing twelve proposed rules that collectively will streamline the FAR in its entirety. This rule proposes revisions to FAR parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 38, 44, 51, and 52.

What the document says

Quoted verbatim from the document.

I. Background

E.O. 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement (April 15, 2025), resets the foundation for Federal buying by requiring the FAR Council to produce a streamlined FAR that is simpler, clearer, and structured for speed. According to the E.O., the FAR has evolved from its original purpose (i.e., to establish uniform procedures across executive departments and agencies), into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework and bureaucracy. While meant to ``deliver, on a timely basis, the best value product or service to the customer, while maintaining the public's trust and fulfilling public policy objectives,'' the FAR has become an expensive barrier to achieving those objectives. As a result, the E.O. directed the FAR Council and OMB to create an agile, effective, and efficient regulation that contains only provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement. To implement E.O. 14275, OMB issued Memorandum M-25-26, Overhauling the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which announced the ``Revolutionary FAR Overhaul'' (RFO) and created a roadmap for producing a simpler regulation aligned to statute, rewritten in plain language, and including only those nonstatutory requirements that are necessary to conducting sound procurement. The memorandum described a new streamlined vision for the FAR, to be maintained alongside nonregulatory governmentwide guidance to provide a common-sense authoritative foundation for nimble response and delivery of mission capability. This new vision represents a paradigm shift where over-engineered regulations designed for paperwork and compliance are replaced with streamlined regulations focused on core stewardship principles and nonregulatory guidance focused that will be used in concert with the streamlined FAR focused on proven buying strategies, critical thinking, market awareness (including to expand awareness of goods, products, and materials offered in the United States), and risk literacy to enhance workforce problem-solving. The significant reduction of unnecessary mandates is intended to clarify and reinforce the contracting officer's discretion to determine the best way to apply policies and practices. The newly established, nonregulatory guidance, which has been inspired by acquisition innovation advocates, category managers, other experienced practitioners, and many years of feedback from the contractor community--is expected to facilitate contracting officers' use of their discretion more efficiently and effectively to make smarter buying decisions. OMB Memorandum M-25-26 also directed the FAR Council to complete the regulatory overhaul in two phases, each with robust public input. The FAR Council conducted its phase one effort in fiscal year 2025 by issuing model class deviations to replace each part in the FAR until such time as formal rulemaking occurred. This proposed rule is one of a series that constitute the FAR Council's phase two effort to obtain public comment through formal rulemaking.

II. Discussion and Analysis

A summary of proposed changes to existing FAR parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 38, 44, and 51, and their corresponding provisions and clauses in part 52 follows:

A. General

1. General RFO Updates This proposed rule generally reorganizes the FAR parts into phases of acquisition and simplifies the text into plain language, where possible. The plain language efforts include changes to active voice, edits to improve readability, and reorganization to present information more logically. None of the plain language edits are intended to change existing FAR requirements. The rewriting of the

Key details

• Document: 2026-19162
• Type: Proposed Rule
• Published: 2026-09-18 in the Federal Register
• Agencies: Management and Budget Office, Federal Procurement Policy Office, Defense Department, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Docket: FAR Case 2026-003, Docket No. FAR-2026-0003, Sequence No. 1
• Citation: 91 FR 59406-59474
• Comments close: 2026-10-19
• CFR parts: 48 CFR 8; 48 CFR 12; 48 CFR 13; 48 CFR 15; 48 CFR 38; 48 CFR 44; 48 CFR 51; 48 CFR 52

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