Federal Acquisition Regulation; Pollution Control and Clean Air and Water

The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule that amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to eliminate the burden on offerors to certify that they do not propose to use a facility for the performance of the contract that is ineligible for award because it is on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ``List of Violating Facilities.'' Contracting officers will use the GSA List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs (GSA List) to ensure that they do not award contracts to ineligible offerors. This change represents no change to the longstanding policy that a contracting officer must not award a contract if performance of the contract would be at a facility that has not corrected the cause that gave rise to a criminal conviction under the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act.