The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued an interim rule earlier this month revising FAR 52.204-7 to require offerors to be registered in System for Award Management (SAM) at two points in time: “[1] when submitting an offer or quotation and [2] at time of award.” The interim rule clarifies that offerors are not required to be continuously registered in SAM between those two dates, which is how decisions by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) have interpreted the clause. Interested parties have until Jan. 13, 2025 to submit comments on the interim rule.
The FAR Council cites two cases we previously discussed – TLS Joint Venture, LLC, B-422275 (April 1, 2024) and Myriddian, LLC v. United States, 165 Fed. Cl. 650 (2023) – as part of the impetus for the interim rule. As we noted, the continuous SAM registration requirement meant that even a period of lapsed registration as short as 24 hours between proposal submission and the time of award could result in an offeror’s ineligibility.
With the new interim rule, however, the FAR Council outlines that continuous registration was never intended to be required under FAR 52.204-7. Rather, the FAR Council describes that unintended interpretation as “an unwitting barrier to entry and significant disruption to the industrial base and the Federal agencies they support.” The interim rule aims to remove confusion regarding the SAM registration requirements under FAR 52.204-7 by specifying that registration is only required at time of proposal submission and time of award, not in between. The interim rule is also intended to reduce the risk of higher costs associated with the growing number of protests grounded in SAM registration lapses, according to the FAR Council.
The interim rule became effective immediately, meaning offerors competing for awards solicited after Nov. 12 need not have continuous SAM registration to be eligible. The rule does not mention whether it has any retroactive effect, however. As a result, offerors with pending proposals must remain vigilant about their SAM registrations, at least until further clarification about the rule’s effect issues from the FAR Council. Otherwise, SAM registration lapses on offers solicited before Nov. 12 could still present grounds for protest.
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