Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement

Key claim: Executive Order 14275 of April 15, 2025, directs a comprehensive overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation so that it contains only provisions required by statute or essential to simple, effective, and secure procurement. It requires the FAR Council to amend the FAR within 180 days, agencies to align their supplements, and consideration of a four-year sunset for non-statutory rules. Implementation proceeds through the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul with model deviations and proposed rules.

Abstract

Presidential Documents 16447Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 74 / Friday, April 18, 2025 / Presidential Documents Executive Order 14275 of April 15, 2025 Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The Federal Government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world—yet conducting business with the Federal Govern- ment is often prohibitively inefficient and costly. More than 40 years ago, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was implemented to establish uniform procedures for acquisitions across executive departments and agen- cies (agencies). The ‘‘vision’’ of the Federal Acquisition System, codified at section 1.102 of the FAR, is 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[,]’’ but since its inception, the FAR has swelled to more than 2,000 pages of regulations, evolving into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework and resulting in an onerous bureaucracy. Federal procurement under the FAR receives consistently negative assess- ments regarding its efficiency. Comprehensive studies such as the 2024 Senate committee report entitled ‘‘Restoring Freedom’s Forge’’ and the 2019 report by the Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations, created by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Public Law 114–92) and made up of experts in acquisition and procurement policy, conclude that the FAR is a barrier to, rather than a prudent vehicle for, doing business with the Federal Government. Its harmful effects permeate various items paid for by American taxpayers, from commercial products like laptops and office supplies to major defense weapons systems. The management and expenditure of nearly $1 trillion annually in procurements cannot continue on this trajectory. Fortunately, its inadequacies are self-inflicted and can be remedied through a comprehen- sive reform of the FAR. Executive Order 14192 of January 31, 2025 (Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation), established that the policy of the executive branch is to be prudent and financially responsible in the expenditure of funds and to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people. Reforming the FAR will advance this objective. Sec. 2. Policy. It is the

Why this matters

Executive Order 14275 of April 15, 2025, directs a comprehensive overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation so that it contains only provisions required by statute or essential to simple, effective, and secure procurement. It requires the FAR Council to amend the FAR within 180 days, agencies to align their supplements, and consideration of a four-year sunset for non-statutory rules. Implementation proceeds through the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul with model deviations and proposed rules.

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