Federal

There is significant activity underway in the federal acquisition arena with implications for Design-Build Done Right® that DBIA wants to bring to your attention.

As part of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, the FAR Council has issued proposed revisions to FAR Part 36, including the rules governing two-phase design-build procurement. DBIA is seeking input from federal design-build Owners and practitioners who understand Design-Build Done Right® principles and how they contribute to successful project delivery.

We recognize that reviewing a FAR rewrite is a significant ask, so we have identified key areas where your practical experience can be particularly valuable. We are also providing links to the FAR Companion Guide (pages 90-94) and Practitioner Album (which includes current FAR texts with markings to show proposed high-level changes) as optional but significantly germane resources that may be useful in your review.

As you review the proposed Part 36, we ask that you keep this overarching question in mind: As someone committed to Design-Build Done Right® in the federal space, do you see anything in the proposed changes that could adversely affect the effective procurement and delivery of design-build projects, or anything that is now inconsistent or interpretively unclear between the proposed changes and the new guidance language in the FAR Companion Guide and Practitioner Album?

To help focus your review, we have identified a few areas where your perspective may be particularly valuable:

• Shortlisting and proposal burden: Whether the approach appropriately limits Phase 2 competition and unnecessary proposal cost and design effort.
• Qualifications and team evaluation: Whether agencies can meaningfully evaluate the qualifications, experience and past performance of the integrated design-build team.
• Owner requirements and acquisition strategy: Whether the proposed approach supports appropriate performance requirements and allows acquisition strategies to reflect project goals, complexity, risk and market conditions.
• Contracting officer discretion: Whether the proposed rule provides an appropriate level of contracting officer discretion for effective design-build procurement.
• What may be missing: Whether anything important to successful design-build procurement has been removed, relocated or made discretionary.

You do not need to address every area. If one provision or issue stands out based on your federal experience, that input alone would be valuable.

The proposed revisions represent the final opportunity for public comment before the FAR Council moves toward a final rule, making input at this stage particularly valuable.

We encourage you to share your perspective in two ways by October 12:

• Share your input with DBIA at advocacy@dbia.org to help inform our formal comments through the lens of Design-Build Done Right® principles.

• Submit comments directly through the federal comment portal, Federal Acquisition Regulation: Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul Parts 14, 28, 36, and 52, so decisionmakers also hear firsthand from those actively working within the federal acquisition system.

Cost Accounting Standards — Also Worth Knowing

Separately, the Cost Accounting Standards Board has issued final rules significantly raising key CAS applicability thresholds, including the basic threshold from $2.5 million to $35 million and the threshold for full CAS coverage from $50 million to $100 million. These are final rules, not a call for comments. However, the changes may reduce compliance burdens for some federal contractors.

Thank you for lending your expertise. Our goal is to help ensure that the federal acquisition framework supports sound design-build procurement and reflects the principles of Design-Build Done Right®.