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August 17, 2025The White House celebrated the changes as a milestone in its effort to overhaul and simplify the rules surrounding federal buying.
The Trump administration is pushing forward in its deregulatory effort to overhaul the primary rules for how the government purchases goods and services, known as the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
The FAR Council released new text for six parts of the FAR on Thursday — parts 4, 8, 12, 38, 40 and 51 — including the section dealing with commercial acquisition.
“We’re removing hundreds of unnecessary requirements,” a senior administration official told Nextgov/FCW about the changes, offering the removal of requirements for commercial contractors to report the names and compensation of the five most highly paid executives as an example.
The goal is to reduce costs and time to deliver and increase competition, they said.
President Trump launched the endeavor in April with an executive order directing the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to strip the FAR to provisions “required by statute or essential to sound procurement.”
The FAR Council has already been issuing model deviation text for various parts of the FAR. Eventually, the council will put the revised FAR through formal rulemaking, including a notice and comment process.
The commercial acquisition section is slimmed down and has fewer requirements, the administration official said, in an effort to “allow [government] to get back to just procuring commercial products as the commercial marketplace does, instead of putting a whole bunch of nuanced, government, non-value-added issues.”
The White House also said Thursday in a press release that some parts of the FAR — section 38 and 51 — have been retired completely and folded into a central section on information and supply chain security policies.
Also within the updates, part 8 directs agencies to use government-wide contracts for common commercial products and services, including “best-in-class” and “preferred contracts.”
Click here for full story from the Government Executive and Nextgov/FCW



