General Services Administration August 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The General Services Administration's (GSA) annual per diem review has resulted in lodging and meal allowance changes for locations within CONUS to provide for the reimbursement of Federal employees' expenses covered by per diem. This Per Diem Bulletin updates the maximum per diem amounts in existing per diem localities and updates the standard CONUS rate. The CONUS per diem rates prescribed in Bulletin 11-01 may be found at https://www.gsa.gov/perdiem. GSA bases the lodging per diem rates on the average daily rate that the lodging industry reports to an independent organization. The use of such data in the per diem rate setting process enhances the government's ability to obtain policy-compliant lodging where it is needed. In conjunction with the annual lodging study, GSA identified five new non-standard areas (NSAs): West Des Moines, Iowa (Dallas County); Queen Anne County, Maryland; Moab, Utah (Grand County); Richland, Washington (Benton County); and Berkeley County, West Virginia.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) have adopted as final, with changes, an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) with respect to the ``Buy AmericanRecovery Act'' provision, section 1605 in Division A.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 807 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005. Section 807 requires an adjustment every 5 years of acquisition-related thresholds for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers, except for Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract Act, and trade agreements thresholds. The Councils have also used the same methodology to adjust nonstatutory FAR acquisition-related thresholds in 2010.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) by updating its coverage on transportation management. This final rule updates definitions and

The General Services Administration (GSA) is amending the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to improve the acquisition of utility services. Two clauses specific to utility services are being added to this part, they are the availability of funds clause which replaces the FAR clause and the disputes clause which supplements the FAR clause.