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Desk reference · not legal adviceEvery threshold/Bonds, reporting, responsibility, CAS and other transactions/Checked 2 Nov 2026
Subcontracts with excluded parties — compelling reason threshold
$45,000was $35,000 until 1 Oct 2025
- Citation
- FAR 9.405-2(b)
- Last moved
- 1 October 2025, from $35,000
- Checked
- 2 November 2026, against the codified FAR and, where it leads the FAR, the statute
- Note
- Moved from $35,000 on 1 October 2025. Above the figure, a corporate officer or designee must notify the contracting officer in writing before award, giving the compelling reason and the safeguards in place.
Your prime contractor wants to subcontract with a firm that is currently suspended, and the item is not a commercially available off-the-shelf item. Above what subcontract value is the prime barred from doing so unless it has a compelling reason?
$45,000 (FAR 9.405-2(b)), as of 2 November 2026. It was $35,000 until it moved on 1 October 2025.
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Before you rely on it: this is the codified amount in effect on 2 November 2026. Agencies on a Revolutionary FAR Overhaul class deviation use the same value under a different paragraph number, and your agency supplement can set a lower one. Check it against the current text before it goes in the file.
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Play today’s ThresholdBonds, reporting, responsibility, CAS and other transactions
6 more- First-tier subcontract reporting$40,000
- Prototype OT — head of contracting activity approval$100,000,000
- Prototype OT — senior procurement executive and congressional notice$500,000,000
- Miller Act performance and payment bonds$150,000
- CAS full coverage threshold$100,000,000
- CAS applicability — negotiated contract exemption$35,000,000