Rules Erased. Rights Lost.

The Law Has Not Changed, But The Rules Have Vanished

In 2025, the federal government began dismantling the regulatory framework that protected small business access to federal contracts, but it did so without changing the underlying law. The Small Business Act, including the core requirements for small business participation and the Rule of Two, remains codified in the U.S. Code.^[1] The statutory language has not been altered by Congress.

What has changed is the entire regulatory infrastructure that implemented, enforced, and operationalized those statutes through the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).^[2] Executive Order 14275 initiated a procedural purge, directing the FAR Council to delete regulations that gave the statutes force.^[3] This creates a legal illusion: the foundational laws remain on the books, but the rules that once made them real have been systematically erased.

This is Not Reform, It is Legislative Rulemaking Without Law

The FAR overhaul is not merely a deletion of procedural rules—it is the insertion of new frameworks, priorities, and regulatory structures that replace enforceable law with discretionary policy. While much of the overhaul has been framed as deletion, the FAR Council also inserted new language that does not appear in any Congressionally-designed statute.

In FAR Part 10, for instance, the revised version includes a new sourcing hierarchy instructing contracting officers to prefer commercial solutions and existing contract vehicles before considering competition through small business set-asides.^[4] This language is not authorized by the Small Business Act; it is entirely regulatory, yet it now governs acquisition strategy. By introducing these new priorities through deviation and redline, the administration is establishing de facto law through procedure, bypassing Congress and the public at large.

A Constitutional Abuse of Power: Bypassing Congress and the APA

This process is a direct violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which requires that substantive changes to federal regulations undergo transparent public notice and comment before they can take effect.^[5] The FAR redlines for Parts 1, 10, 34, and 52 went through none of this.^[2]

Two of the most consequential deletions occurred in FAR Part 1, the regulation governing the FAR system itself:

• FAR Subpart 1.5, which required publication and transparent public comment for FAR rule changes, was eliminated.
• FAR 1.404, which required agencies to post and justify their deviations from the regulations, was deleted.^[6]

The effect is a dual breach: the government has violated both the substantive requirement of the law and the very mechanism that once ensured compliance. The FAR overhaul has achieved what would otherwise require an act of Congress: it has eliminated enforceable rights without repealing a single law.