Second FAR Overhaul Tranche Lands With a 30-Day Clock
1,650 pages of proposed rules covering Parts 9, 14, 27, 28, 36, 47, and 52, and the comment window barely stretches past fiscal year-end closeout.
TL;DR
The FAR Council dropped three proposed rules on September 18 covering seven FAR parts, the second tranche in a planned 12-rule sequence under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul. Comments are due October 19, a 30-day window that leaves contractors roughly two working weeks after the fiscal year closes to digest the changes. The package follows the first tranche published June 23, which covered Parts 1, 2, 4, 33, 39, 40, and 53. The RFO implements Executive Order 14275 and OMB Memo M-25-26, stripping non-statutory text from the FAR and rewriting what remains in plain language. Former GSA administrator Emily Murphy told Federal News Network the latest release is roughly 1,650 pages.
The three Federal Register notices (FAR Cases 2026-010 and 2026-011, plus a third covering Parts 9, 27, and 47) landed September 18 with identical October 19 comment deadlines. That's the second set of proposed rules since the first tranche hit on June 23, and it means the FAR Council has now published proposed revisions to roughly 15 FAR parts across two batches. Twelve total rulemakings are planned to complete the overhaul.
The timing is punishing. The comment window runs straight through the fiscal year close, and anyone who spends the last week of September reconciling contract obligations won't touch these until October. At that point there's roughly two weeks remaining to read, analyze, and submit.
What's actually in the September package? Parts 14 (Sealed Bidding), 28 (Bonds and Insurance), 36 (Construction and Architect-Engineer Contracts), 9 (Contractor Qualifications), 27 (Patents, Data, and Copyrights), 47 (Transportation), and corresponding sections of Part 52 (Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses). The full text is available on regulations.gov, and as Murphy noted, the page count alone (approximately 1,650) makes the 30-day window feel more like a stress test than a consultation.
OFPP and the FAR Council have said the overhaul returns the regulation to its statutory roots and moves non-regulatory material into companion guides and practitioner resources. The first tranche drew substantive reactions from industry, particularly around the Part 8 contract-vehicle hierarchy and the still-unpublished OFPP criteria for "required use" contracts. Those criteria haven't appeared in the September package either.
The RFO's pace is aggressive by design, the administration wants final rules this year. That leaves little room for the comment period to slip. For contractors and trade associations still triaging the first tranche, the second batch compounds the problem rather than resolving it.
Published ·Deep Fathom