Deep Dive: FAR Part 1 - The Elimination of Procedural Infrastructure
The changes to FAR Part 1 are the most critical and foundational element of the Deviation Doctrine. By deleting the rules that govern how rules are made, the administration has effectively removed the legal infrastructure for public transparency and accountability. This is not a minor edit; it is the deliberate dismantling of the system that ensures fair access and the rule of law in federal procurement.
The "Before" Picture: A System Built on Transparency
For decades, FAR Part 1 contained the essential procedures for maintaining the entire Federal Acquisition Regulations System. The most important of these were:
- FAR Subpart 1.5 ("Agency and Public Participation"): This section legally required the government to publish proposed rule changes and solicit public comment before they could be enacted. It was the primary mechanism ensuring that small businesses, industry experts, and the public had a voice in the process.
- FAR 1.404 ("Issuance"): This section required federal agencies to publicly publish and justify any "class deviations" from the FAR. This ensured that even temporary changes were transparent and subject to oversight.
Together, these rules created a system where changes to federal contracting could not be made in secret.
The "After" Picture: Deletion and Substitution
The overhaul of FAR Part 1 did not amend these rules; it **deleted them entirely.**
In place of these legally enforceable procedures, the new FAR Part 1 substitutes a list of vague, unenforceable "bedrock principles" such as "mission-first thinking" and "professional judgment." While these sound reasonable, they provide no procedural rights, no basis for a legal protest, and no requirement for public engagement.
Detailed Impact Analysis
The impact of eliminating these procedural safeguards is catastrophic for fair competition:
- It Ends Public Rulemaking: By deleting Subpart 1.5, the administration has asserted that it no longer needs to ask for public comment to make substantive changes to procurement law. This silences the voices of small businesses and the public.
- It Legalizes Secret Policy: By deleting FAR 1.404, agencies are no longer required to publicly justify their deviations. They can now create a "shadow FAR" through internal memos that have the force of law in practice, but with no transparency.
- It Creates the Foundation for the Deviation Doctrine: This change is what makes all the other changes possible. It removes the very mechanism that could have been used to challenge the legality of the overhaul of Parts 10, 34, 52, and others.
This is the critical first step in an unlawful process. By first removing the rules governing transparency, the administration cleared the way to rewrite all the other rules without public accountability or legal recourse.