View Rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is proposing to amend and update its VA Acquisition Regulation (VAAR) in phased increments to revise or remove any policy superseded by changes in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), to remove procedural guidance internal to VA into the VAAM, and to incorporate any new agency specific regulations or policies. These changes seek to streamline and align the VAAR with the FAR and remove outdated and duplicative requirements and reduce burden on contractors.  The VAAM incorporates the VAAR as well as internal agency acquisition policy. VA will rewrite certain parts of the VAAR and VAAM, and as VAAR parts are rewritten, will publish it in the Federal Register. To minimize the number of rules published, VA will combine relatable topics.  This proposed rule revises VAAR parts 816 and 828, as well as affected part 852.

Statement of Need:

Included in the changes to streamline the VAAR, implementing and supplementing the FAR where required, and removing internal agency guidance in keeping with the FAR principles concerning agency acquisition regulations, are adding a section on consignment agreements which defines and describes the consignment agreement acquisition method used for satisfying the need for immediate and on-going requirements; removing the section, Letters of Availability, as that procurement method is no longer in use in VA. Also, revising the section, Insurance Under Fixed-Price Contracts, to clarify the provision prescription for when insurance is required for solicitations when utilizing term or continuing fixed priced contracts for ambulance, automobile and aircraft service. 

Summary of the Legal Basis:

40 U.S.C. 121(c), 41 U.S.C. 1707, 48 CFR 1.3

Alternatives:

The revised VAAR will have 47 parts, grouped into 19 packages. VA did consider grouping all of the parts into one package, which would have resulted in one regulatory action. However, this approach or alternative was tried several years ago and the project ended up being terminated because of the complexity, time spent correcting errors, legal review, and inconsistency amongst the acquisition offices and other agencies. Another alternative would be to do nothing, which would undermine VA’s mission of simplifying the acquisition process and making it easier for potential vendors to do business with the VA.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

VA has determined there are no transfer costs or savings associated with this rulemaking. VA is merely adding existing and current regulatory requirements to the VAAR and removing any guidance that is applicable only to VA’s internal operation processes or procedures and placing that guidance in the Veterans Affairs Acquisition Manual (VAAM). This rule contains provisions constituting collections of information at 48 CFR 828.306 and 852.228-71, under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3521). However, this regulation does not add any new or proposes any new revisions for the collection of information. The information collection requirements for 48 CFR 828.306 and 852.228-71 are currently approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and were assigned the OMB control number of 2900-0590.

Risks: