National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 30, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) by revising the ``training and education costs'' contract cost principle. The amendment streamlines the cost principle and increases clarity by eliminating restrictive and confusing language, and by restructuring the rule to list only specifically unallowable costs. The final rule eliminates several specific limitations on the allowability of costs associated with the various categories of education, eliminates the disparate treatment of full-time and part-time undergraduate education costs, and limits allowable costs to training and education related to the field in which the employee is working or may reasonably be expected to work. The rule makes job-related training and education costs generally allowable, except for six public policy exceptions that are retained from the current cost principle. Except for the six expressly unallowable cost exceptions, the reasonableness of specific contractor training and education costs is assessed by reference to the FAR section entitled ``Determining reasonableness.''

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) by revising language regarding accounting for unallowable costs. The final rule adds language which provides specific criteria on the use of statistical sampling as a method to identify unallowable costs, including the applicability of penalties for failure to exclude certain projected unallowable costs. The final rule also revises the language regarding advance agreements by adding statistical sampling methods as an example for which advance agreements between the contracting officers and contractors may be appropriate.

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 establish that a copy of an original power of attorney, including a photocopy or facsimile copy, when submitted in support of a bid bond, is sufficient evidence of the authority to bind the surety. The authenticity and enforceability of the power of attorney at the time of the bid opening will be treated as a matter of responsibility.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed to convert the interim rule published in the Federal Register at 70 FR 11739, March 9, 2005, to a final rule with minor changes. The rule amended the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to increase the justification and approval thresholds for DoD, NASA, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The FAR revision implemented Section 815 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 which amended 10 U.S.C. 2304(f)(1)(B) by striking $50,000,000 both places it appears and inserting $75,000,000. In addition, corresponding language in the FAR is also changed to reflect these higher thresholds for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard.

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 reflect the most recent codification of Title 40 of the United States Code.

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the Information Technology (IT) Security provisions of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) (Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002 (E-Gov Act)).

This proposed rule is to amend the NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) to include a requirement for NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contractors to complete a re-certification of program compliance prior to final payment. This requirement is being established to facilitate the Government's ability to hold contractors accountable for compliance with Federal statute, regulation, and program requirements as outlined in the Office of Inspector General's Management Alert Memorandum dated April 28, 2004. As part of its continuing effort to reduce the paperwork and respondent burden, NASA invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on this proposed rule and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).