President Donald Trump last week ordered federal agencies to overhaul their procurement systems and regulations. It’s the biggest effort to modernize how federal agencies buy products and services since Congress passed the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act and the Federal Acquisition Reform Act into law in the ’90s, according to Federal News Network.
Trump’s April 15 executive order said the FAR had evolved “into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework.” He called for it to include only those “provisions required by statute or essential to sound procurement,” and said any provisions that do not advance these objectives should be removed.
In a second order on April 16, Trump also directed agencies to purchase only commercially available products and services, rather than unique government systems or custom solutions, unless they are given a waiver from the agency’s approval authority.
