Federal Acquisition Regulation: Amendments to the FAR Buy American Act Requirements; Extension of Time for Comments

AGENCY:

Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule; extension of comment period.

SUMMARY:

DoD, GSA, and NASA issued a proposed rule on July 30, 2021, amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement an Executive order (E.O.) addressing domestic preferences in Government procurement. The deadline for submitting comments is being extended from September 28, 2021 to October 28, 2021 to provide additional time for interested parties to provide comments on the FAR case.

DATES:

For the proposed rule published on July 30, 2021 (86 FR 40980), submit comments by October 28, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

Submit comments in response to FAR Case 2021-008 to https://www.regulations.gov. Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching for “FAR Case 2021-008”. Select the link “Comment Now” that corresponds with “FAR Case 2021-008.” Follow the instructions provided on the screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and “FAR Case 2021-008” on your attached document. If your comment cannot be submitted using https://www.regulations.gov,, call or email the points of contact in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document for alternate instructions.

Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite “FAR Case 2021-008” in all correspondence related to this case.

Comments submitted in response to this proposed rule will be made publicly available and are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information, or any information that you would not want publicly disclosed unless you follow the instructions below for confidential comments. Summary information of the public comments received, including any specific comments, will be posted on regulations.gov.

All filers using the portal should use the name of the person or entity submitting comments as the name of their files, in accordance with the instructions below. Anyone submitting business confidential/proprietary information should clearly identify any business confidential/proprietary portion at the time of submission, file a statement justifying nondisclosure and referencing the specific legal authority claimed, and provide a non-confidential/non-proprietary version of the submission.

Any business confidential information should be in an uploaded file that has a file name beginning with the characters “BC.” Any page containing business confidential information must be clearly marked “BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL/PROPRIETARY” on the top of that page. The corresponding non-confidential/non-proprietary version of those comments must be clearly marked “PUBLIC.” The file name of the non-confidential version should begin with the character “P.” The “BC” and “P” should be followed by the name of the person or entity submitting the comments or rebuttal comments. All filers should name their files using the name of the person or entity submitting the comments. Any submissions with file names that do not begin with a “BC” will be assumed to be public and will be made publicly available through https://www.regulations.gov.

To confirm receipt of your comment(s), please check https://www.regulations.gov,, approximately two to three days after submission to verify posting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ms. Mahruba Uddowla, Procurement Analyst, at 703-605-2868 or by email at mahruba.uddowla@gsa.gov, for clarification of content. For information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat Division at 202-501-4755 or GSARegSec@gsa.gov. Please cite FAR Case 2021-008.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

DoD, GSA, and NASA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register at 86 FR 40980, on July 30, 2021. The comment period is extended to October 28, 2021 to allow additional time for interested parties to develop comments on the proposed rule as well as provide feedback on the questions posed in the preamble that will be used to further inform the rulemaking and future regulatory actions.

List of Subjects in 48 CFR Parts 1, 25, and 52

• Government procurement