Federal procurement is an essential component of the federal government’s response to disasters, emergencies, and other types of incidents. To aid contracting officers in identifying acquisition flexibilities that may be particularly useful for emergency-related acquisitions, acquisition officials added a new Part 18 to the FAR in 2007. Part 18 is a single reference to acquisition flexibilities that already exist in other parts of the FAR. These flexibilities may be useful in facilitating procurements during emergency situations. Subpart 18.1 lists generally available acquisition flexibilities. Emergency acquisition flexibilities are identified in subpart 18.2. To read the full report, click here.

President Joe Biden has signed the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act into law allotting $816.7 billion to the Defense Department. The act means a 4.6 percent pay raise for military and civilian members of the department, and includes $45 billion more than originally requested to counter the effects of inflation and to accelerate implementation of the National Defense Strategy. The act also authorizes $30.3 billion for national security programs in the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and $378 million for other defense-related activities. To read more, click here.

The House passed by 225-201 the fiscal 2023 omnibus spending package, averting a shutdown through September and setting line-by-line spending levels at every agency in government. The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk, with the Senate already having passed it. The underlying spending package provides an overall increase to non-defense discretionary spending of about 6% for a total of $773 billion, while Defense spending is set to increase by 10% to $858 billion. It will also provide supplemental funding of about $45 billion for Ukraine aid and $41 billion for disaster relief. Click here to read more.

For the 62nd consecutive year, Congress has reached a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Each year, the NDAA authorizes funding levels and provides authorities for the U.S. military and other critical defense priorities, ensuring our troops have the training, equipment, and resources they need to carry out their missions. This year’s agreement, the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, focuses on the most vital national security priorities for the United States, including strategic competition with China and Russia; disruptive technologies like hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, 5G, and quantum computing; modernizing our ships, aircraft, and vehicles; and improving the lives of our servicemembers and their families. To read more, click here.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) is proposing to amend its regulations to implement provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The proposal would permit a prime contractor with an individual subcontracting plan to apply credit for subcontracts to small businesses at lower tiers toward its subcontracting goals. To do so, the prime contractor would incorporate the lower-tier subcontracting performance into its subcontracting-plan goals. Comments must be received on or before February 17, 2023. To read more, click here.

The war in Ukraine—combined with worker shortages, inflation, and other factors—has made it more difficult and more expensive to produce the most in-demand weapons. it’s not clear whether defense companies—and more importantly, the thousands of small businesses that supply them—can meet the demand, due to a confluence of worker shortages, record-high inflation, and supply-chain disruptions that have been exacerbated by a years-long pandemic and an uncertain economic outlook. On top of that, executives say the Pentagon has been slow to award contracts to rebuild weapon stockpiles. Those that were awarded quickly were fast-tracked by top-level Biden administration officials. To read more, click here.

The DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. This rule clarifies that agency acquisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to engage in responsible and constructive exchanges with industry, so long as those exchanges are consistent with existing law and regulation and do not promote an unfair competitive advantage to particular firms. Effective: December 30, 2022. To read this regulation in its entirety, click here.

In August, the Pentagon had halted delivery of F-35s after Honeywell, the maker of a key engine component in the F-35, told a Lockheed Martin-operated facility in Fort Worth, Texas it had new concerns about the provenance of one part. Specifically, the subcontractor had learned a magnet in the component had been made for years using raw materials sourced in China — a violation of federal procurement rules. The Defense Department ultimately decided the Chinese alloy didn’t endanger or compromise the F-35, and it granted a waiver in early October for deliveries to resume. But the high-profile incident spotlighted a quandary for Pentagon leaders, one the department has struggled to address and was warned about for more than a decade: how to keep counterfeit parts and other unauthorized material from sneaking into the department’s sprawling supply chain. To read more, click here.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. This rule clarifies that agency acquisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to engage in responsible and constructive exchanges with industry, so long as those exchanges are consistent with existing law and regulation and do not promote an unfair competitive advantage to particular firms. This rulling will be effective on December 30, 2022. To read more about this final rule, click here.