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When can a US agency use simplified acquisition instead of full competition?

Source last checked: 1 September 2026. Quoted from FAR Part 13 as published in FAC 2026-01, effective 13 March 2026.

The short answer, and the part everyone skips

Below the simplified acquisition threshold, simplified acquisition is not an option a buyer may take — it is the one they are told to take. FAR 13.003(a) says agencies shall use simplified acquisition procedures to the maximum extent practicable for all purchases of supplies or services not exceeding that threshold, including purchases at or below the micro-purchase threshold. The exceptions are narrow: the policy does not apply if the agency can meet its requirement from a required source under FAR part 8, such as Federal Prison Industries or a Federal Supply Schedule contract, or from an existing indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. FAR 13.003(a), FAR Part 13

The part everyone skips is that Part 13 never tells you where the ceiling is. FAR 13.000 defines its own scope as acquisitions whose aggregate amount does not exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, and then points to FAR 2.101 for the number. Part 13 is a set of procedures hung on a threshold defined somewhere else, which is why a page that quotes a dollar figure for it without saying where the figure came from is worth distrusting. FAR 13.000, FAR Part 13

The three ceilings Part 13 does state

Two of them sit above the simplified acquisition threshold and belong to subpart 13.5, which exists for commercial products and commercial services. One sits below and belongs to micro-purchases in a contingency.

Options are counted, not ignored. FAR 13.106-1(e) allows options in a simplified solicitation only where the aggregate value of the acquisition and all of its options stays under the dollar threshold for using these procedures. An award that looks small in year one and large across five is not a simplified acquisition. FAR 13.500(a), 13.500(c) and 13.106-1(e), FAR Part 13

When it is off the table

FAR 13.003(c)(1) is a prohibition, not a caution: the contracting officer shall not use simplified acquisition procedures if the anticipated award will exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, or will exceed $9 million — $15 million for the acquisitions described in FAR 13.500(c) — including options, for commercial acquisitions under subpart 13.5. The test is the anticipated award, which means it is applied before anyone quotes, on the agency’s own estimate. FAR 13.003(c)(1), FAR Part 13

The rule that closes the obvious door

If the ceiling were the only rule, the way around it would be arithmetic: buy the same thing four times. FAR 13.003(c)(2) forecloses that.

Do not break down requirements aggregating more than the simplified acquisition threshold (or for commercial products and commercial services, the threshold in subpart 13.5) or the micro-purchase threshold into several purchases that are less than the applicable threshold merely to permit use of simplified acquisition procedures; or avoid any requirement that applies to purchases exceeding the micro-purchase threshold.

FAR 13.003(c)(2)

Read the second limb. It is not only about staying under the simplified acquisition threshold; it also forbids splitting to drop under the micro-purchase threshold, where competition, set-asides and most clauses fall away entirely. The word doing the work is merely: a requirement genuinely divided for delivery, funding or technical reasons is not what the rule is about. FAR 13.003(c)(2), FAR Part 13

Simplified does not mean uncompeted

The single most common misreading of Part 13 is that it licenses a phone call to a familiar supplier. FAR 13.104 says the contracting officer must promote competition to the maximum extent practicable to obtain supplies and services from the source whose offer is most advantageous to the Government, considering the administrative cost of the purchase, and forbids two specific habits: soliciting quotations based on personal preference, and restricting the solicitation to suppliers of well-known and widely distributed makes or brands.

Where the notice is not made available through the Governmentwide point of entry, the same section says maximum practicable competition can ordinarily be obtained within the local trade area, and that the officer should consider soliciting at least three sources — requesting quotations, whenever practicable, from two sources that were not in the previous solicitation. FAR 13.003(h) adds three duties that survive intact: promote competition, set deadlines that afford suppliers a reasonable opportunity to respond, and consider every quotation that arrives on time. FAR 13.104 and 13.003(h), FAR Part 13

Publicity survives too. FAR 13.105 requires compliance with the public display and synopsis requirements of FAR 5.101 and 5.203 unless an exception in FAR 5.202 applies; for commercial acquisitions it permits a combined synopsis and solicitation, which removes a document, not the notice. FAR 13.105(a) and 13.105(b), FAR Part 13

When one source is allowed

FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) lets the contracting officer solicit from a single source for purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold where the circumstances mean only one source is reasonably available — the examples given are urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name requirements and industrial mobilization. Where only part of the purchase is brand-name, the documentation covers only that part and should say so.

Above the threshold the bar rises. For sole-source and brand-name acquisitions of commercial products and services under subpart 13.5, FAR 13.501(a)(2) requires a justification and approval, with the approval level scaling by value: the contracting officer’s own certification up to $900,000; the competition advocate for the procuring activity above that and up to $20 million; the head of the procuring activity above $20 million and up to $90 million, or $150 million for DoD, NASA and the Coast Guard; and above that, the official described in FAR 6.304(a)(4). None of those approval authorities is delegable. Under FAR 5.102(a)(6) the justification is posted. FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) and 13.501(a)(2), FAR Part 13

What actually falls away

This is the substance of the trade. At or below the simplified acquisition threshold, a list of statutes does not apply, under 41 U.S.C. 1905 and FAR 13.005(a): the contract clause on contingent fees, the authority to examine a contractor’s books and records, the prohibition on limiting subcontractors’ direct sales to the United States, the Drug-Free Workplace requirement except for individuals, and several others. FAR 13.006 carries the matching clause list — 52.203-5, 52.203-6, 52.215-2 (except with its Alternate I on Recovery Act funds), 52.222-4, 52.226-7 and 52.223-9.

The list is not frozen. FAR 13.005(b) requires the FAR Council to add any law enacted after 13 October 1994 that sets acquisition policy to the inapplicable list, with a written best-interest exception; FAR 13.005(c) excludes laws that carry criminal or civil penalties, or that say expressly they apply notwithstanding 41 U.S.C. 1905. FAR 13.005(d) lets any individual petition the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to add a law, and the Administrator must add it unless the FAR Council determines within 60 days that it applies. FAR 13.005 and 13.006, FAR Part 13

Small business is the default here, not the exception

FAR 13.003(b)(1) states it plainly: acquisitions with an anticipated value above the micro-purchase threshold but at or below the simplified acquisition threshold shall be set aside for small business concerns. FAR 13.003(b)(2) lets the contracting officer instead award under the HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned or women-owned small business programmes. Where a set-aside solicitation is written it carries the part 19 provisions; where it is oral, FAR 13.003(b)(4) requires substantially identical information to be given to potential quoters.

One thing does shrink, and it is worth knowing before you protest. FAR 13.003(b)(3) places two decisions at or below the threshold outside review under FAR subpart 19.4: a decision not to make an award under the 8(a) Program, and a decision not to set an acquisition aside for HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned or women-owned small business concerns. An agreement does not create a loophole either — FAR 13.303-5(c) says the existence of a blanket purchase agreement does not justify purchasing from one source or avoiding small business set-asides, and that FAR 13.003(b) and subpart 19.5 apply to each order. Our guide to small business set-asides covers how the set-aside itself works and how size is judged. FAR 13.003(b) and 13.303-5(c), FAR Part 13

How you will actually be asked to quote

Expect less paper and less notice. FAR 13.106-1(c)(1) tells the contracting officer to solicit quotations orally to the maximum extent practicable where the acquisition does not exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, oral solicitation is more efficient than the electronic alternatives, and no notice is required under FAR 5.101. Two figures bound that: FAR 13.106-1(c)(2) says an oral solicitation may not be practicable above $25,000 unless a FAR 5.202 exception covers it, and FAR 13.106-1(d) says paper should be issued for actions likely to exceed $25,000 and shall be issued in writing for construction requirements exceeding $2,000.

At award, FAR 13.106-3(a) requires the contracting officer to determine that the price is fair and reasonable, based where possible on competitive quotations; where only one response arrives, a statement of price reasonableness goes in the file, supported by a previous price, a price list, a comparison with a related industry, the officer’s own knowledge of the item or an independent Government estimate. FAR 13.106-3(b) tells purchasing offices to keep documentation to a minimum, which is the honest reason a simplified award leaves a thin trail. FAR 13.106-1(c), 13.106-1(d) and 13.106-3, FAR Part 13

Micro-purchases: the layer below

At or below the micro-purchase threshold the procedures thin out again. FAR 13.201(b) makes the Governmentwide commercial purchase card the preferred method of purchase and payment, and FAR 13.201(d) says micro-purchases do not require provisions or clauses except as provided at FAR 13.202 and 32.1110 — a paragraph that expressly takes precedence over any other FAR requirement to the contrary. FAR 13.203(a)(2) allows award without soliciting competitive quotations at all where the price is considered reasonable, and FAR 13.203(a)(1) asks only that micro-purchases be distributed equitably among qualified suppliers.

Thin does not mean unbounded. FAR 13.201 keeps the FAR part 8 required sources in play, the environmental requirements of FAR subpart 23.1, the Kaspersky Lab prohibition, the covered telecommunications prohibitions of FAR subpart 4.21, the covered-application prohibition of FAR subpart 4.22, Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act orders, and the unmanned aircraft restrictions at FAR 40.202. FAR 13.201 and 13.203(a), FAR Part 13

What Part 13 does not decide

• The threshold itself. Both the simplified acquisition threshold and the micro-purchase threshold are defined at FAR 2.101, not here.
• Whether your firm is small. That is FAR part 19 and the SBA size standards; Part 13 only points to them.
• Whether the item is commercial. Subpart 13.5 depends on that answer, but FAR part 12 gives it, and FAR 13.500(b) applies part 12 to these acquisitions subject to the order of precedence at FAR 12.102(c).
• What a cost may be. Simplified acquisitions are ordinarily fixed-price; where cost principles matter, they live in FAR Part 31.

Questions we are asked about simplified acquisition

Is simplified acquisition a way for an agency to avoid competing a contract?

No. FAR 13.104 requires the contracting officer to promote competition to the maximum extent practicable, forbids soliciting on personal preference or restricting a solicitation to well-known brands, and says that where the notice is not published through the Governmentwide point of entry the officer should consider soliciting at least three sources. FAR 13.105 keeps the public display and synopsis duties of FAR 5.101 and 5.203 in place unless an exception in FAR 5.202 applies.

What is the dollar limit for simplified acquisition?

Part 13 states its rule against the simplified acquisition threshold but does not itself carry that figure; the threshold is defined at FAR 2.101. What Part 13 does give are the two ceilings above it: FAR 13.500(a) authorises simplified procedures for commercial products and commercial services up to $9 million including options, and FAR 13.500(c) raises that to $15 million for contingency, attack-recovery, international disaster assistance and major disaster acquisitions.

Can an agency split a large requirement into smaller buys to stay under the threshold?

No. FAR 13.003(c)(2) says requirements aggregating more than the simplified acquisition threshold, or more than the micro-purchase threshold, must not be broken down into several purchases that are less than the applicable threshold merely to permit use of simplified acquisition procedures or to avoid a requirement that applies above the micro-purchase threshold.

Does simplified acquisition mean small business set-asides do not apply?

The opposite. FAR 13.003(b)(1) says acquisitions above the micro-purchase threshold but at or below the simplified acquisition threshold shall be set aside for small business concerns. What does change is review: FAR 13.003(b)(3) puts a decision not to award under the 8(a) Program, and a decision not to set an acquisition aside for HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned or women-owned small business concerns, outside review under FAR subpart 19.4.

Which clauses drop out of a contract at or below the threshold?

FAR 13.006 lists them: 52.203-5 Covenant Against Contingent Fees, 52.203-6 Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government, 52.215-2 Audits and Records with an exception for its Alternate I on Recovery Act funds, 52.222-4 Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards, 52.226-7 Drug-Free Workplace except for individuals, and 52.223-9 Estimate of Percentage of Recovered Material Content. FAR 13.005 lists the statutes that fall away with them.

Will I be told why I lost a simplified acquisition?

Not automatically. FAR 13.106-3(c) says that for acquisitions not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, where no automatic notice is provided electronically, unsuccessful suppliers are notified only if they ask or if FAR 5.301 requires it. FAR 13.106-3(d) adds that if the award was based on factors other than price alone and you request information, you are to be given a brief explanation of the basis for the decision.

Quoted from FAR Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, as published on acquisition.gov in FAC 2026-01, effective 13 March 2026; source link checked 4 September 2026. The FAR is being rewritten under Executive Order 14275. Agencies may be operating under class deviations that differ from the codified text quoted here. Section numbers are given as they appear on acquisition.gov; this page quotes the regulation and does not give legal advice.