Q&A on the FAR Overhaul - Video and Transcript

One of the questions I’ve received is: What is the role of OSDBU under the FAR Overhaul, and how will the companion guide affect the roles of the OSDBU?

It seems as if the roles of the OSDBU were minimized. I think that’s absolutely right. The roles of the OSDBU have been minimized in the FAR Overhaul, but I’m not sure it’s going to matter.

What the FAR Overhaul did is take all the content of the responsibilities of the OSDBU and, in the FAR Overhaul, delete them. Potentially they will come back in the FAR companion guide. All those responsibilities of the OSDBU are statutory—they’re in Part 15(k) of the Small Business Act. About 21 responsibilities altogether. They include supervision, appointing small business technical advisors, things like helping with the SBIR program, and helping small business subcontractors get paid. So there are very important responsibilities for the OSDBU. Small businesses rely on the OSDBU to perform these responsibilities.

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Those responsibilities are not going away. They’re still in the Small Business Act. They’re still in Section 15(k). They’re not in the FAR Overhaul, but the FAR Overhaul can’t override a statute. So 15(k) is still in effect.

The FAR Overhaul effort was to try to minimize the number of words in the FAR and really keep it to things that were relevant to contracting officers. And it’s not really necessary that contracting officers know what the responsibilities of OSDBU are. I think that was the logic behind deleting that material from the FAR Overhaul.

So I don’t think the OSDBU responsibilities are affected by the changes in the FAR Overhaul. What is important, however, is that there are new efforts to try to reduce the staff at OSDBU offices.

We saw this in April at HHS. The HHS OSDBU office went from a full office to just one director. And then reportedly, the Air Force is also going through the same process and may be reduced to one director. We’ll know when we get back from the shutdown as to whether that actually happened with the Air Force, but that was reported in September as potentially occurring in the Air Force come October 1st.

So I think that’s a big loss for small businesses. The OSDBU and small business specialists are the front door to agencies for small businesses, and they also play a very important advocacy role. So if you’re reducing the OSDBU, there are fewer people around to help small businesses figure out the complexities of government contracting.

Even though the FAR Overhaul effort was supposed to minimize the complexity and make it more simple, in some areas it’s actually gotten more complicated. It’s not obvious to someone from outside government contracting what a contract vehicle is, or what an IDIQ is, and how to go from an IDIQ to a BPA to an order. All that stuff is supported and encouraged in the FAR Overhaul. And if you’re new to government contracting and you haven’t figured that stuff out yet, you need somebody to hold your hand through it. And that’s what small business specialists, that’s what OSDBU and offices of small business programs would do.

So if we reduce those offices and take responsibilities away from those offices, that’s a big blow to small businesses that are starting to get into contracting and trying to figure it out.

FAR 19.706 and Administrative Contracting Officers

The next question is: Do you think FAR 19.706 will show up in FAR 42? If not, no one will care about subcontracting.

FAR 19.706 is the section about administrative contracting officers. Those are officials that help contracting officers review compliance with subcontracting plans. And the FAR Overhaul deleted all of FAR 19.706. Maybe it’ll come back in the companion guide. It’s not in there, it’s also not in FAR Part 42.

The notation said that this is not statutory and it’s not essential for sound procurement. They could come back. I think administrative contracting officers primarily are within Department of Defense. DoD has not deviated to the FAR Overhaul yet, so they haven’t gotten rid of 19.706. And there’s still an opportunity for DoD to keep that role of administrative contracting officers around, either in the DFARS or through guidance, or just call them something else.

If it’s the case that they are important to the system and they’re required to have humans pay attention to subcontracting plans, I think the Department of Defense will find somebody—it may be something other than an administrative contracting officer—to play that role.

FAR Overhaul Status

There’s a question about whether the FAR Overhaul is a proposed rule or final. Actually, it’s neither. It’s actually before the proposed rule. The FAR Overhaul is what they call a model deviation. So it’s text that agencies could take on thr