Government Procurement in The United States - Law - Statutes and Regulations

Statutes and Regulations

The Government exercises its powers through legislation. We can view legislation in the acquisition arena to fall into two classes.

• First, every acquisition can be traced to legislation that permits the acquisition and that provides money for it.

These are normally covered in authorization and appropriation legislation. Generally, this legislation does not affect the acquisition process itself, although the appropriation process has been used to amend procurement laws, notably with the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA) and the Federal Acquisitions Streamlining Act (FASA).

• Second, every acquisition must follow the rules for acquisition contained in the applicable laws.

The procurement process is subject to legislation separate from the authorization and appropriation process. This legislation may apply to specific agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration or the United States Postal Service, NASA or the Department of Defense, or may apply to a broad class of agencies.

In addition, there is legislation that regulates the process of acquisition itself. The acquisition process is governed by regulations issued pursuant to the statutory authority given by the acquisition statutes. These regulations are included in the Code of Federal Regulations ("CFR"), the omnibus listing of Government regulations, as Title 48. Chapter 1 of Title 48 is commonly called the Federal Acquisition Regulation ("FAR"). The remaining chapters of Title 48 are supplements to the FAR for specific agencies.