On May 22, 2025, the Trump Administration unveiled the next installment of the revised Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) as part of the “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul” (RFO). The latest release set its sights on FAR Part 10 – Market Research.
FAR Part 10: Market Research
The new FAR Part 10 (the Administration is referring to rewritten FAR requirements as RFO FAR) includes an accompanying Practitioner Album, an informal collection of lessons that create a new approach to procurement market research. Per the Practitioner Album, the following content remains in the RFO FAR Part 10:
- Preference for Commercial Products and Services (10 U.S.C. § 3453 and 41 U.S.C. § 3307)[1]
- Planning and Solicitation Requirements (41 U.S.C. § 3306)
- Effective Communication Between Government and Industry (41 U.S.C. § 1703, note, inclusive of 41 U.S.C. § 3301 et seq and 41 U.S.C. § 2102 et seq).
The Practitioner Album notes that regulations removed from the FAR will be included in a “FAR Companion Guide” that has not yet been released. The Companion Guide would include guidance removed from the FAR that is not required by law. The removal of these provisions from the controlling body of law allows “acquisition teams greater flexibility and discretion to consider techniques which are most appropriate to their acquisition.”
The Practitioner Album also includes a “Line Out” showing all text that has been removed from FAR Part 10. Of note, the RFO FAR Part 10 omits any mention of small business considerations in market research. Previously, agencies were required to assess as part of market research whether small businesses could meet the agency’s procurement needs at fair market prices, among other considerations. This requirement, along with another deleted requirement to consult with the Small Business Administration when consolidating or bundling procurements, stem from statutory mandates in the Small Business Act. The Practitioner Album notes that information regarding bundling procurements is already addressed in FAR Part 7, so this content likely will appear in some form once the overhauled versions of those FAR parts are released. But the omission of small business from market research may preview that the Administration will give small business requirements less real estate in the new FAR, perhaps even eliminating some preferences and requirements.
Class Deviations
So far, five agencies have adopted class deviations that follow the FAR Council’s model language for Part 10:
- General Services Administration (May 22, 2025),
- Millennium Challenge Corporation (May 23, 2025), and
- Consumer Product Safety Commission (May 27, 2025).
- Merit Systems Protection Board (May 29, 2025)
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (May 30, 2025)
Conclusion
It is still too soon to tell how “revolutionary” this FAR overhaul really is, but the recent changes to FAR Part 10 are significant enough to impact small businesses in some procurements. Contractors should stay up to date on the new rules and agency-specific class deviations for applicability to their contracts and grants.
[1] Maintaining the preference for Commercial Products and Services is not surprising as it is both rooted in statute and a policy directive in Executive Order 14271. Fox previously covered the significance of Executive Order 14271 in the context of the RFO here.
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