President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 15 that aims to simplify and streamline regulations for the federal government’s procurement of goods and services.
Trump stated in his order that the FAR has evolved into “an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework” with more than 2,000 pages of regulations, resulting in an “onerous bureaucracy” that makes it difficult to do business with the government.
“Its harmful effects permeate various items paid for by American taxpayers, from commercial products like laptops and office supplies to major defense weapons systems,” the president stated.
The government spends nearly $1 trillion on procurements per year, making it the “largest buyer of goods and services in the world,” according to the order.
Trump’s directive seeks to remove unnecessary regulations while also allowing the expansion of the national and defense industrial bases.
Under the order, all agencies with procurement authority must designate a senior acquisition or procurement official within 15 days to ensure agency alignment with FAR reform and to provide recommendations for any agency-specific supplemental regulations to the FAR.
It also directs the Office of Management and Budget to issue a memo with implementation guidance within 20 days. In the meantime, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the FAR Council will issue interim guidance until the final FAR reforms are published.
Trump signed another executive order directing his administration to prioritize the procurement of “commercially available products and services” rather than noncommercial, custom products or services.
Trump said the directive seeks to eliminate unnecessary government spending, noting that previous administrations had “evaded statutory requirements and abused the federal contracting framework by procuring custom products and services where a suitable or superior commercial solution would fulfill the government’s needs.”
The directive cited a 2019 report, which found that the government could have saved an estimated $345 billion over the past 25 years if it had purchased commercial, off-the-shelf information technology solutions, instead of building systems from scratch.
“This overreliance on custom items increased government spending and caused costly delays to the detriment of American taxpayers,” Trump stated in his order.
These directives follow Trump’s previous decision to consolidate domestic federal procurements under the General Services Administration (GSA).
The order suggests that consolidating federal procurement under GSA will “eliminate waste and duplication, while enabling agencies to focus on their core mission of delivering the best possible services for the American people.”
The Trump administration has sought to reduce government spending. Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 tasking the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with reviewing federal agencies for potential downsizing and cost reductions. The order states that DOGE’s work is expected to be completed by July 4, 2026.
