Government Contracts Monitor

Short Take: Simplified Acquisition Threshold Doubles for Certain Overseas Acquisitions

May 15, 2016

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a final rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement a section of U.S. Code which establishes a higher simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) for overseas acquisitions in support of humanitarian or peacekeeping operations.

As explained in the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on October 8, 2015, the drafters of the current definition of “simplified acquisition threshold” in FAR 2.101 inadvertently deleted the reference to overseas humanitarian or peacekeeping missions and the doubling of the SAT to $300,000 in those circumstances as required by 41 U.S.C. 153 (previously 41 U.S.C.(d)(1)). The purpose of this rule is to reinstate the statutorily required higher SAT for overseas humanitarian or peacekeeping missions.

The rule adds the following exception to the FAR 2.101 definition of the SAT (under which the SAT is generally $150,000):

(2) Acquisitions of supplies or services that, as determined by the head of the agency, are to be used to support a humanitarian or peacekeeping operation (10 U.S.C. 2302), the term means $300,000 for any contract to be awarded and performed, or purchase to be made, outside the United States.

The rule also makes conforming changes in FAR parts 4, 13, 18, and 19.

Attorneys

Lindsay Simmons