Pursuant to a notice published in the Federal Register on December 4, 2015, the three federal agencies responsible for administering the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)- the Department of Defense (DOD), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), commonly referred to collectively as the FAR Council – have finalized changes to the FAR that reflect a number of mandates recently imposed on federal contractors by the Obama Administration.

The FAR establishes uniform procurement policies for the acquisition of supplies and services by government agencies. Please note that this action by the FAR Council does not create any new compliance obligations. Rather, it is more ministerial in nature and amends the FAR to formally codify requirements that have already been promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

Of particular interest are three DOL rules incorporated into final FAR rules related to:

  • the expansion of Executive Order 11246 to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections;
  • the new federal contractor minimum wage requirements; and
  • the pilot program for enhancement of contractor employee whistleblower protections.

A fourth action of interest included in the December 4 FAR Council notice is publication of an “interim” final rule related to DOL’s replacement of the old VETS-100/100A Reports with the new VETS-4212 Report. Again, none of these four regulations add any additional compliance responsibilities for federal contractors.