Defense Industry Calls on Pentagon to Withdraw Proposed Changes to IR&D Rules

In public comments submitted earlier this month, the defense industry and the public contract bar called upon the Department of Defense (DoD) to withdraw or significantly revise a proposed rule altering how independent research and development (IR&D) costs are treated.  These public comments reflect the defense industry’s growing concern that DoD is moving to constrain the industry’s ability to utilize IR&D projects as a tool for furthering technical innovation.

The proposed DFARS rule change would require contracting officers managing procurements for major defense acquisition programs and major automated information systems in a development phase to adjust the total evaluated cost/price of a proposal to account for the contractor’s proposed reliance on government-funded IR&D projects. The goal of the rule is to address the concern in the Better Buying Power 3.0 Implementation Directive that contractors may use IR&D such that “development price proposals are reduced by using a separate source of government funding (allowable IR&D overhead expenses spread across the total business) to gain a price advantage in a specific competitive bid.”

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