Acquisition Regulation

The Department of Health and Human Services is amending its acquisition regulation (HHSAR) for the purpose of making administrative and editorial changes to reflect organizational title changes resulting from Office of the Secretary (OS) and Operating Division (OpDiv) reorganizations; updating and removing outdated references; providing procedural guidance for reporting violations of the Procurement Integrity Act; assigning unique document numbers for contracts and task orders, in accordance with an Office of Management and Budget Memorandum dated August 6, 2003; adding a new training requirement for HHS project officers; adding the terms "veteran-owned" and "service- disabled veteran-owned" to describe small business categories consistent with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR); permitting a total of basic and option periods of up to ten years for all service contracts not subject to the Service Contract Act or other statutory requirements; adding the Choice of Law (Overseas) clause in solicitations and contracts when contract performance will be outside the United States, its possessions, and Puerto Rico, except as otherwise provided in a government-to-government agreement; removing the reference to the Department's General Administration Manual with respect to major system acquisitions; deleting unconstitutional and unenforceable portions of the Confidentiality of Information clause resulting from the outcome of Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior Univ. v. Sullivan, and providing current references with respect to assurances and regulations governing the protection of human subjects. HHS is issuing a direct final rule for this action because HHS expects there will be no significant adverse comments on the rule.