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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 152 / Wednesday, August 11, 2021 / Rules and Regulations representatives to review any acquisition, regardless of whether it is set aside, partially set aside, or reserved for small business or other socioeconomic categories.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
GENERAL SERVICES
ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE ADMINISTRATION
48 CFR Part 19
FAC 202107; FAR Case 2020012; Item III; Docket No. FAR20200012; Sequence No. 1
RIN 9000AO16

Federal Acquisition Regulation: Scope of Review by Procurement Center Representatives Department of Defense DoD, General Services Administration GSA, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA.
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation to implement section 1811 of the National Defense Authorization Act NDAA for Fiscal Year FY 2017 to provide procurement center representatives with the discretion to review any acquisition.
DATES: Effective September 10, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.
Malissa Jones, Procurement Analyst, at 7036052815, or by email at Malissa.jones@gsa.gov, for clarification of content. For information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat Division at 2025014755 or GSARegSec@gsa.gov.
Please cite FAC 202107, FAR Case 2020012.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:

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I. Background DoD, GSA, and NASA are amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation FAR to implement section 1811 of the National Defense Authorization Act NDAA for Fiscal Year FY 2017 Pub.
L. 114328, 15 U.S.C. 644l9A.
Section 1811 allows procurement center representatives to review any solicitation for a contract or task order without regard as to whether the contract or order is set aside for small business concerns, or reserved in the case of a multiple-award contract, or whether or not the solicitation would result in a bundled or consolidated contract or order. The Small Business Administration SBA issued a final rule at 84 FR 65647, dated November 29, 2019, to implement section 1811 of the NDAA for FY 2017. In their final rule, SBA amended 13 CFR 125.2b1iA
to allow procurement center
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II. Discussion and Analysis The changes to the FAR and the rationale for the changes are summarized in the following paragraphs.
A. Contracting Officer Requirements for Review of Acquisitions Section 19.2021, Encouraging small business participation in acquisitions, is amended to require that contracting officers provide the procurement center representative a copy of any proposed acquisition package and other reasonably obtainable information related to the acquisition, if the procurement center representative exercises their discretion to review any proposed acquisition. The specific procedures are typically articulated in agreements between procuring activities and procurement center representatives.
Section 19.2021 is also amended to clarify the acquisitions for which the contracting officer must provide the statement described in paragraph e2.
In addition, changes are made to paragraph d of section 19.501, General, to provide that SBA procurement center representatives may review any proposed acquisition in excess of the micro-purchase threshold.
B. Duties of Procurement Center Representatives Section 19.402, Small Business Administration procurement center representatives, is amended to update the description of a procurement center representatives duties to better reflect SBAs regulation at 13 CFR 125.2b.
Specifically, changes to FAR 19.402c are made to provide that procurement center representatives may recommend the set-aside or sole-source award to a small business; the breakout of discrete components, items, and requirements for competition; and ways to improve competition. Paragraph c7 in section 19.402 is relocated from section 19.403, Small Business Administration breakout procurement center representatives.
This paragraph describes the appeal a procurement center representative may file if a contracting activity does not adopt the procurement center representatives recommendation.
C. Duties of Breakout Procurement Center Representative The text of section 19.403, Small Business Administration breakout procurement center representatives, is
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removed and marked Reserved.
Paragraph c8 in this section is relocated to section 19.402 see section II.B. of this preamble. Breakout procurement center representatives were removed from the Small Business Act 15 U.S.C. 644 by section 1621 of the NDAA for FY 2013 Pub. L. 112
239. Therefore, section 19.403 is no longer needed.
D. Technical Amendments Section 19.5028, Rejecting Small Business Administration recommendations, has a two workingday appeals period. There is a different appeals period for the HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, and Women-Owned Small Business Programs, of five working days; therefore, a reference is added to FAR 19.5028b for those sections.
III. Publication of This Final Rule for Public Comment Is Not Required by Statute The statute that applies to the publication of the FAR is 41 U.S.C. 1707
entitled Publication of Proposed Regulations. Paragraph a1 of the statute requires that a procurement policy, regulation, procedure or form including an amendment or modification thereof must be published for public comment if it relates to the expenditure of appropriated funds, and has either a significant effect beyond the internal operating procedures of the agency issuing the policy, regulation, procedure or form, or has a significant cost or administrative impact on contractors or offerors. This final rule is not required to be published for public comment, because it amends requirements related to the review of proposed acquisitions by SBAs procurement center representatives.
These requirements affect only the internal operating procedures of the Government.
IV. Applicability to Contracts at or Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold SAT and for Commercial Items, Including Commercially Available Off-the-Shelf COTS Items This rule amends FAR part 19, Small Business Programs. The objective of this rule is to update requirements for contracting officers with regard to reviews of proposed acquisitions by SBAs procurement center representatives, to align with section 1811 of the NDAA for FY 2017 Pub. L.
114328, 15 U.S.C. 644l9A. This rule does not change the applicability or text of any FAR solicitation provisions or contract clauses.

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