The Trump Administration is taking a number of steps to overhaul the way the government buys things. The federal government has begun the formal rulemaking phase of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO), a government-wide effort to simplify the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), reduce unnecessary procurement burdens, and move practical acquisition guidance outside the regulatory text. With Phase II of the RFO underway, companies that sell to the government now have less than 30 days to submit comments on the first batch of proposed rules before they ultimately become permanent.  The RFO outcomes will determine which streamlined policies become permanent, how much discretion contracting officers may exercise, and where contractors should look for binding requirements versus non-binding guidance.

The RFO was born out of Executive Order 14275, “Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement,” which directed agencies to eliminate excessive acquisition regulations and refocus the FAR on requirements that are required by statute or essential to sound procurement. The stated goal is to make federal acquisition clearer, faster, and more closely aligned with commercial buying practices where appropriate.

How the RFO and Rulemaking Process Work

The RFO is being implemented in two phases. Phase I used temporary agency deviations to test and implement streamlined versions of FAR parts while the government prepared permanent revisions. Phase II is the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 1707 to formally and permanently put the deviations into the FAR.  The notice and comment process will proceed when the FAR Council publishes proposed regulatory text, accepts public comments, reviews significant feedback, and then decides whether to revise and finalize the rule.

On June 23, 2026, the FAR Council published the first RFO proposed rules. The initial package includes four FAR cases covering 20 FAR parts and related clauses in FAR Part 52. The proposals are intended to convert much of the Phase I deviation framework into permanent regulation while also refining, consolidating, and in some places materially changing the prior deviation language.

The first four open cases are:

  1. FAR Case 2026-001: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 1, 2, 4, 33, 39, 40, 52, and 53.
  2. FAR Case 2026-002: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 6, 7, 10, 18, 26, 37, 41, and 52.
  3. FAR Case 2026-005: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 5, 24, 29, and 52.
  4. FAR Case 2026-007: Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Parts 3, 49, and 52.

Each notice includes the proposed regulatory language, the legal authority for the rule, instructions for submitting comments, and a comment deadline. Comments on the first four proposed rules are due July 23, 2026. Contractors, agencies, trade associations, and other interested parties may submit comments supporting the proposals, opposing particular changes, identifying unintended consequences, or recommending revised language.

After the comment period closes, the FAR Council must consider significant comments before issuing any final rule. The Council may revise the proposal, explain why certain comments were rejected, conduct additional analysis, or issue another proposed rule if the changes are substantial. Once a final rule is published and the effective date arrives, the revised FAR text becomes binding governmentwide, absent a successful legal challenge.

These first four proposed rules are just the beginning. The FAR Council intends to release two more batches of proposed rules to further revise the FAR, including some of the most used parts such as FAR parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 16, and 19, with the ambitious goal of finalizing all proposed rules by the end of 2026.

Five Key Takeaways from the Proposed Rules:

  1. Non-statutory requirements are being reduced, removed, or relocated. One of the central themes of the RFO is to limit the FAR primarily to requirements that are required by statute, required by executive order, or considered essential to sound procurement. The proposed rules would remove internal operating procedures, eliminate obsolete provisions, and relocate voluntary or practical guidance—such as survey tools, practitioner tips, and buying strategies—to companion guides or other non-regulatory resources, such as practitioner albums. Companies seeking to do business with the federal government should not assume that provisions removed from the FAR have completely disappeared. Rather, companies will need to track both the binding FAR changes and the companion guidance acquisition officials may rely on in practice.
  1. Contracting officers may have more discretion. The proposed rules reinforce a more flexible acquisition model in which contracting officers are expected to exercise judgment based on mission need, market conditions, risk, and the facts of a particular procurement. For example, proposed revisions to FAR 49.107, Audit of Prime Contract Settlement Proposals and Subcontract Settlements, would replace a mandatory audit requirement for certain termination settlement proposals with a permissive, risk-based approach, allowing the contracting officer to decide whether an audit is appropriate. Contractors should be prepared for more variation across procurements and should build records that help contracting officers justify practical, risk-based decisions tailored to the facts of the procurement.
  1. Agency protests and disputes may become more transparent and more strategic. The proposed revisions to FAR Part 33, Protests, Disputes, and Appeals, would add important clarifications to agency protest procedures and reflect the Administration’s general view that there are too many protests in general. Most notably, FAR 33.104-4(a)(5)(ii)(B) would direct agencies to provide a protester with redacted copies of the agency’s final technical evaluation and source selection decision in certain circumstances, potentially increasing transparency where a debriefing is unavailable or limited. At the same time, the proposed rule encourages alternative dispute resolution techniques, third party neutrals, and other agency personnel as acceptable protest resolution methods. See FAR 33.104-1(b). For incumbent contractors, the proposed rule explicitly requires a contracting officer to document a protest filed by an incumbent contractor “that disrupts transition or induces an extension of their current contract.” See FAR 33.103(e).  Although the proposed rule states that protests should not be used as an information-gathering tool, it also requires agencies to provide certain evaluation documents. Contractors should evaluate agency protests in this context, and incumbents especially should weigh how the protest may be characterized in the procurement record.
  1. Security and supply chain requirements are being consolidated in FAR Part 40. The proposed revisions to FAR Part 40 would consolidate information security and supply chain security requirements that currently appear across FAR Parts 4, 25, and 40. The proposed rule reorganizes Part 40 into subparts addressing processing supply chain risk information (subpart 40.1), security prohibitions and exclusions (subpart 40.2), and safeguarding information (subpart 40.3). It also includes updated definitions of unmanned aircraft systems and covered telecommunications equipment and services. FAR 40.304 creates new requirements for controlled unclassified information (CUI).  Contractors should review their cybersecurity, supply chain, and CUI compliance programs against the proposed Part 40 structure because obligations may be easier to find, but not necessarily less important.
  1. RFO is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. The proposed rules would establish a process for regularly reviewing the FAR to identify outdated or unnecessary policies for potential removal through future rulemaking. The FAR Council intends to standardize this process by issuing future proposed rules at regular intervals to keep the FAR up to date. The rulemaking process will allow the FAR Council to request public input on sections, provisions, or clauses to be reviewed and considered for removal. Contractors should treat FAR modernization as an ongoing process, not a one-time event, and should consider submitting comments when rules affect cost, compliance, competition, or contract performance. Keep in mind that FAR provisions and clauses will not expire until removed from the regulatory text through the rulemaking process.

Bottom Line

The RFO is more than an editing project. It is a structural effort to redefine how federal procurement rules are written, where practical guidance lives, and how much discretion contracting officials may exercise. Companies doing business with the government should carefully review the June 23, 2026, proposed rules, assess business impacts, and submit meaningful comments before the July 23, 2026, deadline. Phase II marks the transition from class deviations to the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process, meaning these changes, if adopted after public comment, would become permanent government-wide regulations. Until then, companies must continue to follow class deviations in addition to the existing FAR requirements. Fluet’s experienced Government Contracts team is closely tracking RFO developments and can help organizations identify opportunities in this evolving regulatory environment.