News for the Acquisition Workforce

A new online course, FAC 097 Navigating Buy American and Trade Agreements, is now available in FAI CSOD. This new course incorporates all of the changes from FAR Rule 2021-008, including the new domestic content requirements for Buy American, the new fallback threshold, as well as the new price evaluation preferences for critical items and critical components. The course also introduces and utilizes two new Buy American and Trade Agreements decision tools that are available on FAI.gov. If you are a contracting professional that purchases supplies, this course is for you! Earn two CLPs for course completion. Register today!

Program managers, consider taking this high-level overview of how to manage climate risks. This new course is broken into three modules, and it explains the current climate science, the need to adapt to climate change hazards and steps program managers can take to mitigate risks. The course also highlights several resources that will assist with making your program more climate-ready. Don’t delay; program managers can register here and earn one CLP after completing the post-assessment. 

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy, in partnership with FAI and COR subject matter experts across civilian agencies, revised the FAC-COR competency model. The revised model reflects the evolving environment of CORs and is better aligned with the current role of a COR. The FAC-COR program is based on competencies that CORs must have to perform their duties as acquisition team members. Commerical training providers have crosswalked and/or updated their COR certification courses accordingly and there is no change to the status of existing FAC-COR certifications. 

A FAC-C-Digital Services (DS) is required prior to being assigned requirements for digital services acquisitions over $7.5 million (or $15 million for acquisitions described in FAR Part 13.500(c)). FAC-C Level II or III certified candidates can earn a FAC-C-DS via the Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) program. There are several vendors who provide the training: Management Concepts, ICF, CivicActions, EAGLES, Skylight and Graduate School USA.

Government/industry engagement is key to the success of the federal acquisition process. Yet, this indispensable part of a high-functioning procurement system is sometimes unknown or ignored. The article linked below illustrates that when done properly, government/industry engagement leads to better acquisition outcomes. It defines government/industry engagement and explains why it's important. In addition, it explains the role of the acquisition workforce and the rules governing government/industry engagement. The article concludes by discussing success strategies, myths, and truths related to government/industry engagement. Click here to read the full article and learn more.

The fourth annual Defense Acquisition University/George Mason University Government Contracting Conference is Friday, Nov. 4 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. E.T. AcquisitioNext, the conference theme, focuses on the need to replace the industrial age acquisition paradigm of linearity and prediction with digital age approaches of modularity, speed, iteration, and competition. You will explore the AcquisitioNext approach in: spurring small business innovation, implementing concepts such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, reforming the budget process and more. Speakers will include senior officials from government, business, and academia. AcquisitioNext is both in-person and virtual. 

Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2022-08 was published in the Federal Register on Sept. 23, 2022. The list of documents included in the FAC are as follows: Introduction; FAR Case 2017-019, Policy on Joint Ventures, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2018-020, Construction Contract Administration, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2019-007, Update of Historically Underutilized Business Zone Program, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; FAR Case 2020-013, Certification of Women-Owned Small Businesses, final rule, effective Oct. 28, 2022; Technical Amendments, final rule, effective Sept. 23, 2022; and Small Entity Compliance Guide. View and download the latest version of the FAR.

The new Acquisition Data Initiatives page is live on Acquisition.gov and can be found on the top menu bar on the main page or here. The page provides news and updates related to acquisition data initiatives involving data analytics, standards and processes, and serves as an access point to procurement-related sites. Agency partners have developed resources for contracting officers and other members of the acquisition community to navigate commonly asked questions in the Federal Procurement Data System. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy team will be updating the acquisition community on ongoing data initiatives, including Equity in Procurement and the Hi-Definition Intelligent Acquisition Environment, in addition to adding more resources in the future.

Acquisition Training for the Real World is a two-week program of daily virtual training sessions on GSA’s tools and digital services and the latest information on federal marketplace initiatives. It is open exclusively to federal agency personnel. Earn up to nine CLPs. Register today!

This month, GSA’s TTS Centers of Excellence is launching the IT Acquisition Community of Practice—a space for federal acquisition professionals to learn from one another on how to buy IT and other timely procurement topics. The goal is to inspire, support, teach and learn from each other by applying modern principles and practices to be the change we want to see in the world of federal acquisitions. Please check out the website and join the listserv by emailing IT-ACQ-COP-subscribe-request@LISTSERV.GSA.GOV with an empty subject line.