For decades, conversations about federal acquisition reform have centered on policy such as new statutes, updated clauses, revised thresholds, or additional oversight mechanisms intended to improve transparency and reduce risk. The current FAR rewrite effort represents something fundamentally different. At its core, it is not a regulatory modernization effort, it is a workforce enablement strategy.

Federal acquisition leaders were directed to confront a hard truth, the FAR was developed under a different industrial landscape and strategic posture, and had become bloated, slow, and in some cases counterproductive to mission execution. Acquisition timelines stretching 12–18 months were not just inconvenient; they were materially eroding buying power in an inflationary environment and discouraging participation from innovative commercial firms.

The resulting mandates were explicit:

• Reduce regulatory complexity (Executive Order 14192: Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation)
• Accelerate procurement timelines (Executive Order 14240: Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement
• Expand participation in the federal industrial base (Executive Order 14271: Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts)
• Empower Contracting Officers (COs) to exercise business judgment (Executive Order 14275: Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement)

In Phase I alone of the FAR rewrite, hundreds of pages of acquisition regulation were removed or rewritten via deviation authority in under six months. While much of the attention has focused on the policy changes themselves, the real disruption is occurring elsewhere – inside the acquisition workforce.

A Smaller Workforce Being Asked to Do More with Less Structure

Federal agencies, GSA in particular, are navigating reform with an acquisition workforce that is facing significant capacity pressures, having lost senior institutional knowledge through retirements and entry-level bench strength through recent reductions in force.

Simultaneously, those remaining professionals are being asked to:

• Move faster
• Take on more discretion
• Deviate from long-standing process templates
• Engage a broader and more commercially oriented supplier base
• Evaluate proposals in an environment of increasing automation and AI-assisted submissions

In practical terms, the challenge is not training, it is untraining. For more than 40 years, acquisition personnel have been conditioned to mitigate risk through procedural adherence. The rewritten FAR deliberately shifts authority back toward individual judgment. The revised FAR Part 1, specifically FAR 1.402-1(b), now grants COs “wide latitude to exercise business judgment” and authority “to the maximum extent practicable” to determine how rules apply on a given contract. For instance, revised FAR Part 15 allows COs greater latitude in determining which offerors advance into the competitive range for negotiations, a deliberate shift from fixing proposal deficiencies to actual bargaining on material terms. Clarifications, which cannot change material proposal elements, may also occur at any point from proposal receipt through award.

That represents a profound cultural shift from:

“Did we follow the process correctly?”

To:

“Did we make the best business decision for mission success?”

The success of this reform effort depends on whether the workforce feels empowered and supported to make that transition.

Where Industry Comes In: The Reform Will Fail Without Behavioral Change on the Supplier Side

Even if the regulatory environment becomes more agile, acquisition outcomes will not improve if industry continues to engage the government using legacy capture and proposal behaviors designed for FAR Part 15 environments. This is the part that has received the least attention.

Several dynamics are already emerging:

• An expanded competitive pool driven by streamlined commercial acquisition authorities under FAR Part 12, including simplified procedures for commercial products and services up to $7.5 million ($15 million in certain contingency circumstances), as well as simplified procedures under FAR Part 13 for noncommercial acquisitions below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold
• Increased use of centralized buying mechanisms such as OneGov (the GSA-led initiative to consolidate common buying under EO 14240)
• Fewer duplicative agency specific vehicles across government
• A shift toward simpler quotes in lieu of heavily negotiated proposals
• A growing volume of AI-assisted submissions, some of which are already creating protest risk due to erroneous autogenerated references, a risk that revised FAR Part 33 addresses directly by requiring “clear and substantiated allegations” and adding a stated objective to deter abuse of the bid protest process.

Acquisition teams now face the dual burden of moving faster and evaluating more entrants with less process insulation. Industry behavior can either reinforce or undermine that effort.

What Industry Needs to Do Differently

1. Design for Decision Speed, Not Proposal Compliance

If contracting officers are being evaluated on agility, industry submissions that rely on volume, boilerplate, or clause-mirroring language introduce friction. Future-ready contractors should assume:

• Less time for evaluators to interpret intent
• Greater reliance on comparative tradeoff judgment
• A premium on clearly articulated value over exhaustive compliance mapping

Winning firms will make it easier for acquisition teams to justify a business decision.

2. Align With Commercial Buying Practices

The rewrite places renewed emphasis on acquiring commercial products and services wherever possible. Over the past decade alone, the government is estimated to have overspent significantly by customizing IT solutions rather than leveraging existing commercial offerings.

Industry participants that:

• offer modular capabilities,
• avoid unnecessary customization,
• price transparently, and
• standardize terms where feasible

will be better positioned to operate within centralized procurement constructs such as OneGov.

3. Engage in Rulemaking Now

The initial tranche of proposed rules is expected to enter the traditional notice-and-comment process beginning spring 2026, with the FAR Council targeting completion by the end of 2026.

Acquisition leadership has explicitly requested:

• Practitioner-level feedback
• Lessons learned from deviation implementation
• Constructive critique of new authorities

Failure to engage during this window increases the likelihood that codified rules will diverge from operational realities, reintroducing the very friction the rewrite seeks to eliminate. Practitioners should also monitor Acquisition.gov and the non-regulatory buying guides (FAR Companion) for implementation guidance as deviations take effect.

4. Prepare for Consolidation Without Assuming Reduced Competition

Efforts are underway to reduce the number of duplicative agency specific contract vehicles in favor of centralized vehicles supported by assisted acquisition services.

However, consolidation at the vehicle level is intended to increase the industrial base as well as increase buying power, reduce administrative duplication, and enable faster task-order execution

Suppliers should anticipate:

• Frequent on-ramps (periodic opportunities for new contractors to join existing vehicles, now explicitly permitted under revised FAR Part 16 for multiple-award IDIQs)
• Open seasons for new entrants

• Greater emphasis on demonstrating unique strengths within common contract vehicles

The Bottom Line

Regulatory reform alone will not accelerate federal acquisition. Success depends on synchronized behavioral change across:

• Contracting Officers
• Program Managers
• Policy teams
• Capture Managers
• Proposal Developers
• Commercial entrants

Acquisition professionals are being asked to exercise greater judgment under tighter timelines and with fewer institutional guardrails. Industry partners that respond by simplifying engagement, clarifying value propositions, and actively participating in rulemaking will help translate policy reform into operational impact. With the first tranche of proposed rules entering public comment in spring 2026, the window to shape how these reforms are codified is narrow and closing.

Get Up to Speed on the Full Series

Part 1: What’s Driving the FAR Rewrite and Why it Matters

Part 2: What the FAR Rewrite Signals for Industry Growth Strategies

Acquisition reform is reshaping how agencies buy. Red Team helps contractors realign through vehicle strategy, capture and proposal optimization, and targeted training. If you’re reassessing your growth posture in light of the FAR rewrite, let’s start the conversation.