I. Background

DoD published an interim rule in the Federal Register at 75 FR 32638 on June 8, 2010, to implement section 819 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The interim rule added coverage at DFARS 217.202 and 234.005-1. The intent of the statute is to prevent a contract for new technology that is initially awarded as a result of competition, from becoming a noncompetitive effort for the development of advance components or the procurement of prototype units. The DFARS implementation places specific limits, in accordance with the statute, on the dollar value, period of performance, and time for exercise of contract line items or contract options for such contracts.

The comment period closed on August 9, 2010. A single comment was received in response to the interim rule. The respondent commented that including the change in DFARS part 234 will result in users following this requirement only when procuring major systems. This issue was raised during the preparation of the interim rule. DoD confirmed that part 234 is the optimal location, but has added to DFARS part 235, Research and Development Contracting, a second cross-reference to the part 234 coverage.