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What can you ask for in a federal debriefing, and when?

Source last checked: 1 September 2026 · FAR Part 15, FAC 2026-01, effective 13 March 2026

Which debriefing you are in

It depends on when you were knocked out. If you were excluded from the competitive range, or otherwise excluded from the competition before award, you may request a debriefing before award under FAR 15.505(a). If you stayed in to the end and were told the contract went to someone else, your route is the postaward debriefing at FAR 15.506(a). The two are different sections with different content and different disclosure limits, and the one you are in is fixed by the notice you received, not by which you would prefer.

One limit applies to both: FAR 15.505(a)(3) states that offerors are entitled to no more than one debriefing for each proposal. A preaward debriefing taken when you are dropped from the competitive range is therefore the debriefing for that proposal, and asking again after award does not reopen it.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15 — Contracting by Negotiation, sections 15.505 and 15.506, acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

The request: in writing, within three days

Three days, in writing, from the notice — and the clock starts with the notice, not with the award. For a preaward debriefing, FAR 15.505(a)(1) requires a written request submitted to the contracting officer within 3 days after receipt of the notice of exclusion from the competition. For a postaward debriefing, FAR 15.506(a)(1) requires a written request received by the agency within 3 days after the date on which the offeror received notification of contract award under FAR 15.503(b).

An offeror, upon its written request received by the agency within 3 days after the date on which that offeror has received notification of contract award in accordance with 15.503(b), shall be debriefed and furnished the basis for the selection decision and contract award.

FAR 15.506(a)(1)

The difference in wording between the two is worth reading twice. The preaward rule speaks of submitting the request; the postaward rule speaks of the request being received by the agency. Posting a letter on the third day satisfies neither test reliably, and the postaward text puts the risk of transit on the offeror.

Once a timely request is in, FAR 15.506(a)(2) states that to the maximum extent practicable the debriefing should occur within 5 days after receipt of the written request, and that offerors who asked for a postaward debriefing in lieu of a preaward one, or whose debriefing was delayed for compelling reasons beyond contract award, should also be debriefed within that period. Note the verb: the agency should debrief within that time, while under FAR 15.506(a)(1) it shall debrief an offeror who asked in time. The entitlement is firm; the five-day timing is an objective.

Miss the window and the entitlement goes. FAR 15.506(a)(3) states that an offeror notified of exclusion from the competition who failed to submit a timely request is not entitled to a debriefing, and FAR 15.505(a)(3) says such an offeror need not be given either a preaward or a postaward one. FAR 15.506(a)(3)(i) adds that untimely requests may be accommodated — may, not shall. A late request is a favour you can ask for, not a right you can assert.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.503, 15.505 and 15.506, acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

What a postaward debriefing must contain

At a minimum, it must give you the basis for the selection decision and the award, and FAR 15.506(d) spells out the floor. The debriefing information shall include:

• the Government's evaluation of the significant weaknesses or deficiencies in your proposal, if applicable;
• the overall evaluated cost or price, including unit prices, and the technical rating, if applicable, of both the successful offeror and you, plus past performance information on you;
• the overall ranking of all offerors, when any ranking was developed by the agency during the source selection;
• a summary of the rationale for award;
• for acquisitions of commercial products, the make and model of the product the winner will deliver; and
• reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether the source selection procedures in the solicitation, applicable regulations and other applicable authorities were followed.

Two items in that list are stronger than suppliers expect. The winner's overall evaluated cost or price and technical rating are disclosable, including unit prices — this is one of the few places where you learn a competitor's number. And the ranking clause is conditional on a fact about the agency's own process: it must be disclosed when any ranking was developed. If the source selection authority made a best-value judgement without ever ordering the proposals, there is no ranking to disclose and none can be demanded.

The last item is the one to prepare for. A debriefing is not only a briefing — it is the one occasion on which the agency owes you reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether it followed its own stated procedures. Questions drafted against the evaluation scheme printed in the solicitation get answers; open-ended requests for the file do not.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.506(a) and 15.506(d), acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

What a preaward debriefing contains, and what it holds back

It tells you about you, and almost nothing about anyone else. FAR 15.505(e) sets the floor for a preaward debriefing: the agency's evaluation of significant elements in your proposal, a summary of the rationale for eliminating you from the competition, and reasonable responses to relevant questions about whether the source selection procedures in the solicitation, applicable regulations and other applicable authorities were followed in the process of eliminating you.

FAR 15.505(f) then bars the preaward debriefing from disclosing, among other things, the content of other offerors' proposals, the evaluation of other offerors, and anything prohibited in FAR 15.506(e). Read against FAR 15.506(d), the gap is clear: the postaward debriefing discloses the winner's evaluated price and technical rating, while the preaward debriefing discloses neither, because at that point there is no winner and the competition is still live.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.505(e), 15.505(f), 15.506(d) and 15.506(e), acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

What no debriefing will give you

Not a comparison, and not anyone else's confidential business information. FAR 15.506(e) opens with the sentence that disposes of most disappointed expectations:

The debriefing shall not include point-by-point comparisons of the debriefed offeror's proposal with those of other offerors.

FAR 15.506(e)

The same paragraph bars the debriefing from revealing any information prohibited from disclosure by FAR 24.202 or exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Among the things it names are privileged or confidential manufacturing processes and techniques; commercial and financial information that is privileged or confidential, including cost breakdowns, profit, indirect cost rates and similar information; and the names of individuals who provided reference information about an offeror's past performance.

This is the line that separates a usable debriefing question from a wasted one. “How did my technical score compare with the winner's, factor by factor?” asks for exactly what FAR 15.506(e) forbids. “Which significant weaknesses did you record against my staffing approach, and under which evaluation factor?” asks for what FAR 15.506(d) requires.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, section 15.506(e), acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

A worked example: dropped from the competitive range on a Thursday

A mid-sized engineering firm bids a negotiated services requirement. On Thursday it receives a written preaward notice: its proposal has been excluded from the competitive range, the notice states the basis for that determination and says a proposal revision will not be considered. That notice is the one described at FAR 15.503(a)(1), and it is what starts the clock.

The firm now has a decision to make within three days, and it has two usable moves and one that forfeits everything.

1. Ask for a preaward debriefing now. A written request reaches the contracting officer by Sunday. The firm learns how its significant proposal elements were assessed and why it was eliminated, in time to decide whether the exclusion itself was properly made. It learns nothing about competitors, because FAR 15.505(f) does not allow it.
2. Ask now, but ask for the debriefing to be delayed until after award. FAR 15.505(a)(2) permits this at the offeror's request, and the delayed debriefing must then include all the information normally provided in a postaward debriefing under FAR 15.506(d) — the winner's evaluated cost or price and technical rating included. The firm trades timing for content, and the regulation attaches a warning to that trade, quoted in the next section.
3. Wait and see whether it wins an appeal internally, then ask after award. This is the move that forfeits. FAR 15.506(a)(3) states that an offeror notified of exclusion who failed to submit a timely request is not entitled to a debriefing at all, and FAR 15.505(a)(3) says it need not be given either kind. Whether the agency accommodates a late request is its choice under FAR 15.506(a)(3)(i).

There is a fourth outcome the firm does not control. Under FAR 15.505(b) the contracting officer may refuse the request if, for compelling reasons, a debriefing at that time is not in the Government's best interests; the rationale goes in the contract file. Even then the debriefing is not lost: it must be provided no later than the time postaward debriefings are provided, and the contracting officer must then include the FAR 15.506(d) information in it. A delay ordered by the agency therefore produces the richer debriefing, just as a delay requested by the offeror does.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.503(a), 15.505(a), 15.505(b), 15.505(f) and 15.506(a), acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

Delaying the debriefing: what you trade

Content, in exchange for a timing risk that FAR Part 15 flags but does not quantify. FAR 15.505(a)(2) ends with a sentence that is easy to skim past: debriefings delayed under that paragraph could affect the timeliness of any protest filed subsequent to the debriefing. FAR 15.506(a)(3)(ii) repeats the point from the other side — Government accommodation of a request for a delayed debriefing under FAR 15.505(a)(2), or of any untimely debriefing request, does not automatically extend the deadlines for filing protests.

Note what those two sentences do and do not say. They do not set a protest deadline, shorten one, or extend one. They warn that the deadline is fixed elsewhere and keeps running while you wait for a debriefing you chose to postpone. FAR 15.507(a) says where that elsewhere is: protests against award in negotiated acquisitions shall be handled in accordance with FAR Part 33. If the protest clock matters to your decision, FAR Part 15 is not the document that answers it.

One further point, for the case where a protest succeeds. FAR 15.507(b) provides that if a protest causes the agency, within 1 year of contract award, to issue a new solicitation on the protested award, the contracting officer shall give the information at FAR 15.507(c) to all prospective offerors for the new solicitation; if it causes a new request for revised proposals instead, that information goes to the offerors who were in the competitive range and are asked to submit revised proposals. FAR 15.507(c) describes it as the information provided to unsuccessful offerors in any debriefings conducted on the original award regarding the successful offeror's proposal, plus other nonproprietary information that would have been provided to the original offerors. In other words, a successful protest can push debriefing content out to a wider circle than the debriefing itself ever reached.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.505(a), 15.506(a) and 15.507, acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

Who runs it, in what form, and what goes on the file

The contracting officer, in whatever form that officer accepts, and a summary of it ends up in the contract file either way. FAR 15.505(c) and FAR 15.506(b) both state that debriefings may be done orally, in writing, or by any other method acceptable to the contracting officer. So a written debriefing satisfies the regulation; a meeting is not owed to you.

FAR 15.505(d) and FAR 15.506(c) both state that the contracting officer should normally chair any debriefing session held, and that the individuals who conducted the evaluations shall provide support. The evaluators are therefore expected in the room, which is why questions written against specific evaluation factors tend to get better answers than general complaints.

FAR 15.505(g) and FAR 15.506(f) both require an official summary of the debriefing to be included in the contract file. That summary is the agency's record of what it told you — a reason to put your questions in writing, and to read what comes back against what you asked.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.505 and 15.506, acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

What this guide does not cover

FAR Part 15 governs negotiated acquisitions, and its debriefing sections do not reach everything that looks like a federal competition. FAR 15.001 states that the part prescribes policies and procedures governing competitive and noncompetitive negotiated acquisitions, and that a contract awarded using other than sealed bidding procedures is a negotiated contract, referring to FAR 14.101. Naming FAR 15.506 as your authority when the procurement was not a negotiated one gives a confident wrong answer, so the boundaries matter:

• Sealed bidding. A sealed-bid procurement under FAR Part 14 is defined by FAR 15.001 as outside the negotiated category this part governs. The debriefing entitlements at FAR 15.505 and FAR 15.506 are sections of this part.
• Simplified acquisitions. FAR 15.503(b)(2) states that on request the contracting officer shall furnish the postaward notification information described at FAR 15.503(b)(1) to unsuccessful offerors in solicitations using simplified acquisition procedures in FAR Part 13. That is the notice information — award recipient, items and quantities, stated unit prices, and in general terms the reason your proposal was not accepted — not a debriefing under FAR 15.506.
• Protest deadlines and procedures. FAR 15.507(a) sends these to FAR Part 33. This guide quotes FAR Part 15's warnings about timeliness; it does not state any filing deadline, because FAR Part 15 does not contain one.
• The content of the notices themselves. What an agency must put in a preaward notice of exclusion, in the small business programme notices, or in the postaward notification is FAR 15.503, a separate duty from the debriefing that follows.
• Agency supplements and deviations. Individual agencies add their own debriefing procedures on top of FAR Part 15. Those are not in this part and are not described here.

Source for this section: FAR Part 15, sections 15.001, 15.503, 15.505, 15.506 and 15.507, acquisition.gov/far/part-15.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to request a federal debriefing?

Three days, in writing. For a postaward debriefing, FAR 15.506(a)(1) requires the written request to be received by the agency within 3 days after the date you received notification of contract award. For a preaward debriefing, FAR 15.505(a)(1) requires a written request submitted to the contracting officer within 3 days after you receive the notice of exclusion from the competition.

Can I still get a debriefing if I miss the deadline?

Only if the agency agrees. FAR 15.506(a)(3) states that an offeror notified of exclusion from the competition who failed to submit a timely request is not entitled to a debriefing, and FAR 15.505(a)(3) says such an offeror need not be given either a preaward or a postaward debriefing. FAR 15.506(a)(3)(i) adds that untimely requests may be accommodated, which makes a late debriefing discretionary rather than owed.

Will a debriefing tell me what the winning bid cost?

In a postaward debriefing, yes. FAR 15.506(d) requires the overall evaluated cost or price, including unit prices, and the technical rating of the successful offeror as well as your own. A preaward debriefing does not: FAR 15.505(f) bars disclosure of the evaluation of other offerors and the content of their proposals.

Can I see the other bidders' proposals in a debriefing?

No. FAR 15.506(e) states that the debriefing shall not include point-by-point comparisons of your proposal with those of other offerors, and shall not reveal information prohibited from disclosure by FAR 24.202 or exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act, including privileged or confidential cost breakdowns, profit and indirect cost rates.

Does asking for a debriefing give me more time to protest?

Not by itself. FAR 15.505(a)(2) warns that a debriefing delayed at your request could affect the timeliness of a protest filed after it, and FAR 15.506(a)(3)(ii) states that Government accommodation of a delayed or untimely debriefing request does not automatically extend protest filing deadlines. FAR 15.507(a) sends protest handling to FAR Part 33, which is where the deadlines live.

Can the contracting officer refuse to debrief me?

Before award, the officer can delay it. FAR 15.505(b) allows the contracting officer to refuse the request if, for compelling reasons, a debriefing at that time is not in the Government's best interests, with the rationale documented in the contract file. The debriefing must then be provided no later than the time postaward debriefings are provided, and must include the information at FAR 15.506(d).

Do I get a debriefing for every proposal I submit?

One for each proposal, at most. FAR 15.505(a)(3) states that offerors are entitled to no more than one debriefing for each proposal. A preaward debriefing taken after exclusion from the competitive range is that debriefing, unless you asked under FAR 15.505(a)(2) for it to be delayed until after award.

Does the debriefing have to be a meeting?

No. FAR 15.505(c) and FAR 15.506(b) both state that debriefings may be done orally, in writing, or by any other method acceptable to the contracting officer. FAR 15.505(d) and FAR 15.506(c) add that the contracting officer should normally chair any session held, with the individuals who conducted the evaluations providing support.

Related guides

• When must you submit certified cost or pricing data?
• When can a US agency use simplified acquisition instead of full competition?
• What is a small business set-aside, and does my firm qualify?

Source: FAR Part 15 — Contracting by Negotiation, FAC 2026-01, effective 13 March 2026, as published at acquisition.gov/far/part-15. Every section cited on this page is taken from that text; the corpus copy used here was fetched on 1 September 2026, and the live document was read again on 30 October 2026 to confirm the section numbering quoted above. This guide describes FAR Part 15 as codified today. On 18 September 2026 the FAR Council published a proposed rule rewriting Parts 8, 12, 13, 15, 38, 44 and 51 under Executive Order 14275 (91 FR 59406, FAR Case 2026-003). It is a proposal, not the text in force. Agencies may also be operating under class deviations that differ from the codified text quoted here.

Written by Robert Grabarević, founder of Scalebiz. He built the radar as a tool for himself, so that he would not have to re-read the same funding rules for every application. Every guide on this site cites the regulation by section or page, so each claim can be checked against the source. About Scalebiz · Robert on LinkedIn.