Department of Defense April 1, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Defense (DoD) is publishing this notice to announce that the following Federal Advisory Committee meeting of the Defense Innovation Board will take place.

DoD is making technical amendments to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to provide needed editorial changes.

DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement the final rule published by the Small Business Administration implementing a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 that provided revised and standardized limitations on subcontracting, including the nonmanufacturer rule, that apply to small business concerns, including participants in the 8(a) Program.

DoD is issuing a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 to require, for DoD contracts with contractors that have approved purchasing systems, that a contracting officer have written approval from the program manager prior to withholding a consent to subcontract.

DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 that requires the DFARS to be updated to include an instruction on a demonstration project for contractors employing persons with disabilities.

DOD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 that requires the preference for the use of fixed-price contracts in the determination of contract type, requires review and approval for certain cost- reimbursement contract types at specified thresholds and established time periods, and requires the use of firm fixed-price contract types for foreign military sales unless an exception or waiver applies.

The Department of Defense is issuing this final rule to adjust each of its statutory civil monetary penalties (CMP) to account for inflation. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act), requires the head of each agency to adjust for inflation its CMP levels in effect as of November 2, 2015, under a revised methodology that was effective for 2016 and for each year thereafter.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) proposes to revise portions of its internal regulations that establish the responsibilities and procedures for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). An agency may determine that certain classes of actions normally do not individually or cumulatively have significant environmental impacts and therefore do not require further review under NEPA. Establishing these categories of activities, called categorical exclusions (CATEXs), in the agency's NEPA implementing procedures is a way to reduce unnecessary paperwork and delay. This revision clarifies what types of activities fall under CATEXs and normally do not require additional NEPA analysis.