Mittelstand US procurement RFP handbook.
The RFP architecture US federal procurement reads on, and what foreign suppliers rebuild before responding.
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The uniform body of policies and procedures governing acquisition of supplies and services by US federal executive agencies, codified at 48 CFR Chapter 1.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the primary regulation governing acquisition of supplies and services by all US federal executive agencies. It is codified at Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 1, and is issued jointly under the authority of the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The FAR is maintained by the FAR Council and updated through the Federal Acquisition Circular process.
The FAR is organised into eight subchapters and approximately 53 parts. Among the most operationally significant for foreign suppliers are FAR Part 6 (competition requirements), FAR Part 9 (contractor qualifications and responsibility determinations), FAR Part 12 (acquisition of commercial products and commercial services), FAR Part 15 (contracting by negotiation), FAR Part 19 (small business programs), FAR Part 22 (application of labor laws), FAR Part 25 (foreign acquisition, including the Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act), FAR Part 31 (cost principles), FAR Part 37 (service contracting), and FAR Part 52 (solicitation provisions and contract clauses). FAR clauses are incorporated by reference into federal solicitations and contracts and become binding contract terms once awarded.
FAR Part 9 (Contractor Qualifications) is especially material for foreign suppliers. The contracting officer must affirmatively determine that a prospective contractor is responsible before award, applying tests of financial capacity, performance record, integrity, business ethics, and necessary organisation, experience, and operational controls. A foreign supplier without a documented US past performance record, US-readable financial controls, and US-legible compliance posture often does not satisfy the responsibility determination at the cut-off date the contracting officer is operating against.
For internationally-headquartered firms responding to US federal solicitations, the FAR is the governing reading frame. The deck, the proposal, the past-performance summary, and the representations and certifications all need to translate into FAR-compliant artefacts before they can be evaluated. Foreign-headquartered firms typically respond through a US subsidiary or a US-incorporated reseller; the FAR clauses flow through the prime contract to the foreign parent through the subcontractor structure. Trade Agreements Act compliance under FAR 25.4 also constrains the eligible country-of-origin set.
The FAR baseline is supplemented by agency-specific overlays, the most consequential being DFARS for defense procurement. Further reading: Mittelstand US procurement RFP handbook and the four-filter framework.
The RFP architecture US federal procurement reads on, and what foreign suppliers rebuild before responding.
Read the pillar →The reading frame US procurement applies to foreign vendors. Category, past performance, peer set, risk architecture.
Read the pillar →What CEOs of internationally-headquartered firms inherit when they put commercial weight into the US, and the rebuild order.
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