Federal Acquisition and Reform (1996)

The Federal Acquisition and Reform Act (FARA) of 1996 built on many of the elements introduced in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994.

Back to Timeline: Congress crafts acquisition policy.

The Federal Acquisition and Reform Act (FARA) of 1996 built on many of the elements introduced in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994.

One of the key elements of FARA regarded the competitive range determination, which allowed contracting officers to limit the number of bids they were going to actively evaluate. Contracting officers could then focus on the bids that had a chance of winning the contract as opposed to considering each and every bid that might be submitted.

“The contracting officer has much more flexibility to make a reasonable decision as to who might be eligible to win based on the initial review of bids,” said Tim DiNapoli, acting director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office. “That allowed a much greater focus on those bids that have a chance for award and to focus the government’s attention on achieving best value.”

The quick succession of bills — FASA, Clinger-Cohen and FARA — aimed at reworking the federal procurement process came about because of a general recognition the process had become complex and burdensome.

“By the late ’80s and early ’90s, there was a definite desire to move to a simpler acquisition process to try and encourage more commercial approaches to acquiring goods and services and just make the system more efficient all the way around,” DiNapoli said.

This story is part of Timeline: Congress crafts acquisition policy.

QUICK LINKS:

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Part 1: Agency Acquisition

Part 2: Acquisition Workforce

Part 3: Acquisition Oversight

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