Trump Tells Agencies to Buy Commercially Available, not Custom Solutions

Last week, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO), Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts. The EO set as standing Trump Administration policy that agencies are to procure commercially available products and services, as required by the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA), rather than buying non-commercial, customized products or services.

Trump previously signed an EO to modernize defense acquisitions, which includes a preference for commercial solutions, and an EO to consolidate much federal procurement under the General Services Administration (GSA) for “common goods and services.”

Maximizing the Use of Commercial Solutions

The motivation behind this directive, and those similar, is to “eliminate unnecessary and imprudent expenditures of taxpayer dollars” by enforcing existing laws that direct federal agencies to maximize their use of “the competitive marketplace and the innovations of private enterprise to provide better, more cost-effective services to taxpayers.” The latest EO highlights non-commercial products or services that include “highly specialized, Government-unique systems, custom-developed products or services, or research and development requirements where the agency has not identified a satisfactory commercial option.” 

Commercial products and services (i.e., commercial solutions used here for the purpose of brevity) include commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) offerings.

Review of Pending Agency Non-Commercial Purchasing Actions

The renewed drive for agencies to buy commercial solutions begins with agency reviews of all pending non-commercial solutions (NCS) purchases. The EO requires the following actions by agency procurement officials:

• Review of Non-Commercial Purchases – Within 60 days (June 15, 2025), each agency’s senior procurement executive (SPE) is to direct the agency’s contracting officers (COs) to review all open agency solicitations, pre-solicitation notices, solicitation notices, award notices, and sole source notices for non-commercial solutions (NCS).
• Applications for Non-Commercial Purchases (waivers) – Agency COs are to consolidate and submit these solicitations, etc. for NCS purchases for (waiver) approval by the agency’s SPE.  
  • Applications must contain the market research, price analysis and justification and rationale for pursuing a custom-developed or other NCS.
• Approval/Denial of Non-Commercial Purchases – Agency SPEs then have 30 days after receiving these NCS applications to assess its compliance with FASA and the sufficiency of the justification provided, and to either recommend the solicitation of commercial solutions (deny) or approve the waiver. 
• Agency Progress Reports – Within 120 days (Aug 14, 2025), and then annually, each agency’s SPE is to report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing the agency’s compliance with FASA and its progress toward implementing the policies of this order, (i.e., procure commercially available solutions.)

Related Acquisition Rule Reform Coming

According to recent media reports, the GSA is making progress on their plans to rework Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules for civilian agencies. The effort includes plans to streamline acquisitions by removing regulations that are not required by statute, similar to elements of the recent Trump EOs.

Within the reform scope is to rework FAR Part 10, which covers market research for solicitations, and FAR Part 12, which involves acquisition regulations covering commercial products and services. The two-pronged effort of FAR reform and agency acquisition policy realignment, among other initiatives, could produce some of the most significant changes to federal procurement that we have seen in decades.

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