Federal Acquisition Regulation FAR

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the primary, government-wide regulation governing how executive-branch agencies buy supplies and services. Published at Acquisition.gov, it sets uniform policy and procedure for everything from acquisition planning through contract formation, administration, and closeout. Contracting officers, program managers, and logisticians across DoD and civilian agencies use it as the baseline rulebook for every federal contract action.

What it is

The FAR is codified in Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations. It is organized into subchapters, parts, subparts, and sections covering acquisition planning, competition requirements, contract types, socioeconomic programs (e.g., small business set-asides), and the standard clauses/provisions incorporated into federal contracts. Agencies layer their own supplements on top of the FAR — the Department of Defense's DFARS is the one most relevant to military logistics — to add agency-specific policy without altering the base FAR text.

In 2025, the FAR Council launched the "Revolutionary FAR Overhaul," a government-wide initiative to strip non-statutory and duplicative requirements from the FAR and publish shorter, plain-language rules alongside category-specific buying guides. GSA published the dedicated overhaul hub on Acquisition.gov in May 2025.

Who operates it

The FAR is issued and maintained jointly by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, whose members are the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of General Services (GSA), the Administrator of NASA, and the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). GSA's Office of Acquisition Policy hosts and publishes the FAR text at Acquisition.gov. The FAR Council meets to resolve implementation disagreements and coordinate government-wide procurement regulatory activity.

Access

The FAR is freely public at acquisition.gov/far/, with the full text browsable online and downloadable in HTML, PDF, Word, ePub, and DITA formats. No account or credential is required to read or download it.

How logisticians use it

Contracting and logistics personnel consult the FAR to determine competition requirements, permissible contract types, required clauses, and source-selection procedures before and during a procurement. Military logisticians typically read the FAR alongside the DFARS, since DoD purchases are governed by both simultaneously — the FAR sets the government-wide floor and the DFARS adds defense-specific requirements on top of it.

Related systems

The FAR is closely linked to the DFARS (the Defense Department's FAR supplement), and to the federal systems that operationalize FAR-driven procurement actions, including SAM.gov (contractor registration, exclusions, and contract award data), and PIEE (contract administration and invoicing).