Understanding the FAR Overhaul: History, Impacts, and Industry’s Role

By Sebastian Herrick, Director, Procurement Policy, PSC

The U.S. Government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world, and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) generally governs how the government goes about those purchases and sets competitive business guidelines for the federal contractors.

The FAR is currently undergoing a Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO)—spurred by Executive Order (EO) 14275: Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, issued on April 15.

The EO’s use of the word “Revolutionary” is no exaggeration. Led by the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), Phase 1 of the overhaul— revising the FAR part by part through “model deviations”—is well underway. Eight of 53 FAR Parts have already been pared down to reflect the administration’s stated goal: to contain 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.” During PSC’s 2025 Federal Acquisition Conference, Larry Allen, Associate Administrator of GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy said, “GSA leadership wants to emphasize the ‘Revolutionary’ aspect of FAR,” to create a better system that reduces burdens on industry.

GSA’s engagement is clearly reflected in the new RFO website, housed at acquisition.gov, which chronicles each overhauled FAR Part, pairs them with respective agency deviations, and includes helpful practitioner tools like “albums” with line-out documents (text removed from the FAR) and summaries of the changes made.

Read the entire article in the Summer 2025 edition of Service Contractor magazine.
Articles: Discover more about Service Contractor and submit your articles here.
Advertising: Learn about magazine advertising opportunities here.