New decisions, rules and guidance a contracting officer should know about, with the line that actually matters. This issue is as it was published on 21 September 2026; later issues carry what has moved since.
18 Sep 2026FAR overhaulThe FAR Council published four more Revolutionary FAR Overhaul proposed rules on 18 September, covering FAR parts 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 28, 35, 36, 38, 44, 47 and 51 with conforming changes throughout part 52 — FAR Cases 2026-003, 2026-006, 2026-010 and 2026-011. With the four published 23 June, eight of the twelve announced rules are now out. Comments on all four close 19 October 2026.
Thirty-one days, and these are the parts you work in every day. Nothing in them governs a file on your desk — they are proposed rules, and the codified FAR or your agency's class deviation still does — but the docket is the only place a practitioner objection lands before the text goes final. If your office is running an RFO deviation, read the proposed text against that deviation rather than against the FAR you remember: they are three different documents now.
FAR Case 2026-003, 18 September 2026 →Where every FAR part stands →
18 Sep 2026FAR overhaulUnder FAR Case 2026-003, a deficiency would become simply a part of a proposal that does not conform to a material term of the RFP — one affecting price, quantity, quality or delivery, or a prerequisite the RFP requires to be met at the time of submission — dropping the current branch for a combination of significant weaknesses. The rule would eliminate the pre-competitive-range exchange on adverse past performance, extend clarifications to competitive negotiated acquisitions and allow them at any time up to award, let a contracting officer accept a late proposal on a best-interest determination, and stop requiring the competitive range to hold all of the most highly rated proposals. It also formalises a highest-technically-rated-with-a-fair-and-reasonable-price approach and phased down-select evaluations, and adds munitions response services to the services that should avoid LPTA, implementing section 822 of the FY2025 NDAA.
None of this is in effect: FAR 15.306, the current definition of deficiency and the current late-proposal rule still govern the source selection you are running today. Read it anyway, because this is the paragraph most of your protest exposure lives in — if you have ever had an exchange second-guessed as discussions, or held a late proposal you thought was curable, the 19 October docket is where you say so.
FAR Case 2026-003, Part 15 summary of changes →Where every FAR part stands →
18 Sep 2026FAR overhaulFAR Case 2026-011 would delete FAR subpart 27.4, Rights in Data and Copyrights, in its entirety along with its provisions and clauses, and replace it with DFARS-derived coverage split in two: a rewritten subpart 27.4 for other-than-commercial technical data, computer software and documentation, and a new subpart 27.5 for commercial. The same rule would set a single, non-extendable 20-year SBIR/STTR data protection period, after which the Government would take Government purpose rights rather than unlimited rights, aligning the FAR with SBA's 2023 SBIR/STTR policy directive. It would also remove FAR subpart 9.6, Contractor Team Arrangements, as unnecessary, and add noncompliance with the forthcoming clause under E.O. 14398 to the causes for debarment and suspension at FAR 9.406-2 and 9.407-2.
If you buy software or technical data outside DoD, this is the rule in the batch that changes your job the most: a contracting officer who has never worked a DFARS-style rights assertion would be doing exactly that. Two practical reads now — check what your open solicitations promise on data rights before the text moves, and note that deleting subpart 9.6 does not make teaming arrangements go away, it only takes the FAR's description of them out of the picture.
FAR Case 2026-011, 18 September 2026 →Where every FAR part stands →
18 Sep 2026GAO jurisdictionCFTC posted a notice of intent on 5 June 2026 to award Beacon Capital Partners a sole-source five-year lease for 289,295 rentable square feet at its existing headquarters, 3 Lafayette Centre, while it competes a long-term replacement; written capability statements were due 20 June. GAO denied MEPT/FCP Patriots Plaza's protest on every ground: the continuity-of-operations requirement and the five-year term were reasonable, the decision to walk away from a GSA-negotiated lease at Patriots Plaza III was contract administration outside GAO's bid protest jurisdiction, and the Antideficiency Act and USE IT Act are not procurement statutes GAO enforces in a protest. Because it never submitted a capability statement, the protester was not an interested party to challenge the sole-source documentation at all. Decided 15 September; posted by GAO 18 September.
Two things for the file when you go sole source by notice of intent. The response deadline in your notice is what decides who can protest later, so make that deadline and the submission instructions unmistakable and keep every capability statement that arrives. And build the justification on the operational need and the timeline for the follow-on competition — GAO reviewed those, but it would not touch the underlying real-estate decision, and it never reached the sole-source documentation because no one had preserved standing to ask about it.
MEPT/FCP Patriots Plaza, LLC, B-424581, B-424581.2 →
18 Sep 2026RulesDHS published a final rule codifying Class Deviation 23-01 as new HSAR subpart 3025.71, implementing the Make PPE in America Act. Contracting officers must buy domestic PPE; any contract for PPE must carry a base period of at least two years plus option periods; and clause HSAR 3052.225-71 with provision 3052.225-72 goes into solicitations and contracts regardless of dollar value. The exceptions — alternatives to domestic production, nonavailability and unreasonable cost — run only through the DHS Chief Procurement Officer, who must recertify every 120 days on a justification concurred in by the head of the contracting activity. Effective 19 October 2026.
DHS only, but it bites at the bottom of the range: there is no micro-purchase or simplified acquisition carve-out, so a small order for gloves, masks, face shields, gowns or protective eyewear carries the clause. The restrictions reach orders and option exercises as well as new awards, so a PPE option coming up after 19 October is not a clean renewal — and a 12-month PPE requirement has to be restructured to meet the two-year base period, not just re-claused.
HSAR Case 2024-003, final rule →
Every item links its primary source. Figures and paragraph numbers are as of the issue date; check the current text before one goes in a file. Found an error? Tell us.