2022-25962. Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2023-01; Small Entity Compliance Guide

AGENCY:

Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION:

Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG).

SUMMARY:

This document is issued under the joint authority of DoD, GSA, and NASA. This Small Entity Compliance Guide has been prepared in accordance with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. It consists of a summary of the rules appearing in Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2023-01, which amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Interested parties may obtain further information regarding these rules by referring to FAC 2023-01, which precedes this document.

DATES:

December 1, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

The FAC, including the SECG, is available at https://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For clarification of content, contact the analyst whose name appears in the table below. Please cite FAC 2023-01 and the FAR Case number. For information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat Division at 202-501-4755 or [e-mail]. An asterisk (*) next to a rule indicates that a regulatory flexibility analysis has been prepared.

Rules Listed in FAC 2023-01

Item	Subject	FAR case	Analyst
I	Updates to Title 10 Citations	2022-005	Moore.
*II	Effective Communication Between Government and Industry	2016-005	Jackson.
*III	United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement	2020-014	Jackson.
IV	Technical Amendments

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Summaries for each FAR rule follow. For the actual revisions and/or amendments made by these FAR rules, refer to the specific item numbers and subjects set forth in the documents following these item summaries. FAC 2023-01 amends the FAR as follows:

Item I—Update to Title 10 Citations (FAR Case 2022-005)

This final rule amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation to update statutory references to Title 10 of the United States Code, which were revised by Title XVIII of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 (Pub. L. 116-283), Transfer and Reorganization of Defense Acquisition Statutes, and Title XVII of the NDAA for FY 2022 (Pub. L. 117-81), Technical Amendments Related to the Transfer and Reorganization of Defense Acquisition Statutes. The final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities because it simply updates statutory references in existing regulations.

Item II—Effective Communication between Government and Industry (FAR Case 2016-005)

This final rule amends the FAR to implement section 887 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 (Pub. L. 114-92). This rule clarifies that agency acquisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to engage in responsible and constructive exchanges with industry, so long as those exchanges are consistent with existing laws and regulations, and do not promote an unfair competitive advantage to particular firms.

DoD, GSA, and NASA do not expect this final rule to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Any effect to small businesses should be positive. Small businesses will benefit from better communication with the Government.

Item III—United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (FAR Case 2020-014)

This final rule implements the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act (Pub. L. 116-113). The rule makes changes in the FAR to conform to Chapter 13 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which sets forth certain obligations between the United States and Mexico with respect to Government procurement of goods and services, as specified in Annex 13-A of the USMCA. Chapter 13 of the USMCA applies only between Mexico and the United States and does not cover Canada. Although Canada is still a designated country under the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement, Canada is no longer a Free Trade Agreement country. Therefore, references to Canada as a Free Trade Agreement country in the FAR are deleted, including the $25,000 threshold. DoD, GSA, and NASA do not expect this rule to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The effect on contracting officers is expected to be minimal as they will continue to apply the rule implementing the USMCA to contracts to which the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) applied, at the higher threshold for Mexico.

Item IV—Technical Amendments

Administrative changes are made at FAR 17.701, and 53.300.

William F. Clark,

Director, Office of Government-Wide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office of Government-Wide Policy.