Federal Acquisition Regulation; Special Emergency Procurement Authority

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 69 FR 8312, February 23, 2004, to a final rule with changes. The rule amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the special emergency procurement authorities of Section 1443 of the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-136, Title XIV, codified at 41 U.S.C. 428a), and section 822 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005. Section 1443 increases the amount of the micro-purchase threshold and the simplified acquisition threshold for procurements of supplies or services by or for an executive agency that, as determined by the head of the agency, are to be used in support of a contingency operation or to facilitate the defense against or the recovery from nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attack. Section 822 of the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization Act further increased the threshold amounts for any contract to be awarded and performed, or purchases to be made, outside the United States. Also, under section 1443, the head of the contracting activity carrying out a procurement of supplies or services to facilitate defense against or recovery from nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack may treat such supplies or services as a commercial item.