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A new version of Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 10 removes prescriptive requirements and adds a “practitioner album” with the goal of streamlining research processes.
The Trump administration has released the market research portion of its rewrite of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, this time with a goal of reforming how acquisition officials research solutions and pricing for government contracts.
In the redo of FAR Part 10, the General Services Administration has released what it calls a “Practitioner Album” to help agencies streamline how they conduct market research. The rewrite is part of what the government is calling a “revolutionary FAR overhaul.”
Jeffrey Koses, GSA’s senior procurement executive, wrote in a Thursday memo and Friday LinkedIn post that the move aims to give acquisition officials greater flexibilities.
“The FAR no longer lists specific market research considerations or techniques that must be used,” he said.
Acquisition teams can pick the method they see as best meeting their needs.
“For example, you might host a reverse industry day or expert panel,” Koses wrote. “This allows industry experts to share their perspectives, commercial practices, and experiences with the acquisition team.”
Competition requirements remain as described in the Competition in Contracting Act.
The Practitioner Album goes into more detail on the class deviation GSA wants agencies to follow.
As with the other FAR reforms released so far, the album includes the marked-out text being removed from Part 10. The FAR overhaul sections released so far have focused on Parts 1, 34 and 54.
Of note in the Part 10 revision: every mention of small business requirements in the current rules is marked for deletion.
The document encourages early communications with industry.
“When early conversations with industry happen, solutions align, proposals improve, awards happen faster, and teams deliver,” GSA writes in the album.
GSA has also created a “procurement co-pilot” to help acquisition teams develop better cost estimates, find companies more quickly and chose the best contract. The tool also will give acquisition teams ways to determine what others have paid for similar work.
