Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs) are rules governing purchases made by the executive agencies of the U.S. government. Information about FARs is posted on ARNet: The Acquisition Network. FARs are discussed extensively in Government Contracts Under The Federal Acquisition Regulation (Thomson/West) by W. Noel Keyes. For questions, call the FAR Secretariat (202-501-4067).
FARs are officially published in Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Unofficially, FARs are published in looseleaf form in the GSA's Federal Acquisition Regulation and CCH's Government Contracts Reporter. In addition, FARs are posted on ARNet's page Federal Acquisition Regulation and searchable on Lexis (PUBCON;FAR).
When a FAR is amended or a new FAR is adopted, the GSA puts out a Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC), which is published in the Federal Register and prepared as replacement pages for the GSA looseleaf. Circulars back to 1995 are posted on ARNet's Federal Acquisition Regulation page in both formats.
Changes are also promptly incorporated into the the eCFR and CCH's Government Contracts Reporter. By contrast, the official CFR (print or online) is updated only annually, so official CFR users should also check recent Circulars or the List of CFR Sections Affected.
Proposed FARs: Proposed FARs are posted on ARNet's Interrim and Proposed Rules page.
Defense FARs: Department of Defense Acquisition Regulations (DFARs) are published in CFR Title 48, Chapter 2 (Parts 210 through 299) and in Volume 6 of the CCH Government Contracts Reporter. They are also posted free at FARSite. For better searching, use Lexis (PUBCON;D0D) or Westlaw (DRARS).
Note: Additional Defense Acquisition Regulations are published in CFR Title 32, Parts 1-39; these rules are searchable on Lexis (PUBCON;D0D).
Other Acquisition Regulations: Acquisition regulations by/for individual agencies are published in Chapters 2 through 99 of CFR Title 48. You can search all the acquisition regulations in Title 48 at once on Lexis (PUBCON;ALLFAR).
