When an agency races to complete purchases before September 30, it relies on tools that feel permanent: micro-purchases on a government purchase card, simplified acquisition procedures, commercial terms and orders placed against existing multiple-award contracts. Much of that toolkit was assembled by two laws passed in the mid-1990s. Their history explains why fourth-quarter buying looks the way it does.
The setting
By the early 1990s, federal buying was widely criticized as slow and expensive. The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 had strengthened competition, but layers of rules made small purchases cumbersome and discouraged many commercial companies from selling to the government at all. Reform panels and studies, along with the Clinton administration’s broader effort to reinvent government, pushed for change. Congress responded with two major laws.
The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994
The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, known as FASA, reshaped buying at the smaller end and changed how the government treats commercial products. Among its best-known changes:
- It established the simplified acquisition threshold, under which agencies may use simpler, faster procedures, and reserved purchases in that range for small businesses when competition among them is expected.
- It created the micro-purchase threshold, below which purchases can be made without competitive quotes when the price is reasonable, a change that helped the government purchase card become an everyday buying tool.
- It established a preference for commercial items and directed agencies to remove barriers that kept commercial firms away, the foundation of today’s FAR Part 12.
- It provided statutory authority for task order and delivery order contracts, encouraged multiple awards and required that holders receive a fair opportunity to be considered for orders.
- It emphasized the use of past performance in evaluating offerors.
The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996
Two years later, Congress passed two related reform laws as part of a defense authorization act: the Federal Acquisition Reform Act and the Information Technology Management Reform Act. Together they became known as the Clinger-Cohen Act, after Representative William Clinger and Senator William Cohen. The law repealed the 1965 Brooks Act, which had centralized authority over federal computer purchases in GSA, and instead made agencies responsible for managing their own information technology investments. It required major agencies to appoint chief information officers. On the acquisition side, it streamlined several competition procedures, authorized two-phase design-build selection and expanded flexibility for commercial purchases.
What the reforms mean today
Dollar thresholds set in the 1990s have been raised many times since, and the FAR has been rewritten in places more than once, but the structure these laws created remains. When a buyer in August issues a quick order under a multiple-award contract, uses simplified procedures for a modest requirement or accepts commercial terms for a software license, it is using authority that traces back to FASA and Clinger-Cohen.
For contractors, the lesson is practical. Much fast fourth-quarter buying runs through these channels, which is why holding contract vehicles, understanding simplified procedures and presenting offerings in commercial terms matter so much. The current versions of these rules are in the FAR at acquisition.gov; check there for current thresholds rather than the figures in the original laws.