The Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1994
Abstract
The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA) was signed by President Clinton on October 13, 1994. It represents the culmination of four years of cooperative bipartisan activity, including the Section 800 Panel review of over 600 procurement-related laws, and the adoption of many of the panel's recommendations by the Office of Federal Procurement policy (OFPP), the President and Vice President, the DoD, the defense industry, and the six committees in Congress that reviewed and refined the legislation. The Act repeals or substantially modifies 225 procurement statutes. It will dramatically impact how the U.S. Government spends approximately $200 billion a year (of which DoD spent about $138.3 billion in FY 1993) on the procurement of products and services. Acquisition in support of foreign military sales (FMS) will be affected as billions of dollars are spent each year on behalf of FMS customers. For example, $9.9 billion of the $138.3 billion spent by DoD in FY 1993 and over $6 billion spent in FY 1994 were for FMS customers requirements. This article highlights certain major features of FASA, such as the establishment of a Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) of $100,000 and its relationship to the use of electronic commerce in source selection; the caution that, presently, the use of FACNET is limited to base operations contracting; a micropurchase threshold of $2,500, to simplify small purchases; the exclusive reservation of contracts up to $100,000 to small businesses; the statutory preference for government use of commercial items or products; and the "contingency operation" contracting threshold of up to $200,000 for procurements outside the United States. While significant cost savings have been estimated and forecasted by various experts, it will take several years before we will be able to determine the true measure of FASA's cost savings and streamlining.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA496621
Entities
People
- Charles B. Barry
Organizations
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency