Federal Acquisition Regulation; Change to Performance-based Acquisition

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 changing the terms "performance-based contracting (PBC)" and "performance-based service contracting (PBSC)" to "performance-based acquisition (PBA)" throughout the FAR; adding applicable PBA definitions of "Performance Work Statement (PWS)" and "Statement of Objectives (SOO)" and describing their uses; clarifying the order of precedence for requirements; eliminating redundancy where found; modifying the regulation to broaden the scope of PBA and give agencies more flexibility in applying PBA methods to contracts and orders of varying complexity; and reducing the burden of force-fitting contracts and orders into PBA, when it is not appropriate. The title of the rule has also been changed to reflect the deletion of "service."