PSC’s Kostro on the FAR Overhaul, Anthropic, DHS shutdown and more
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By
Nick Wakeman
Stephanie Kostro talks trends, issues and priorities for the industry on the next WT 360 podcast episode.
The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul took the market by storm last year as the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget released nearly 50 master deviations and removed over 2,700 pages from the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
That was all accomplished by Sept. 30 with the promise that final rules would start coming out in 2026, which they have not so far.
That is one of our talking points in the next episode of the WT 360 podcast where Ross Wilkers and I sit down with Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council. The episode drops early Monday morning.
“It has surprised me that we’re already well into March and we haven’t seen them yet,” Kostro said of the final rules. “Fingers crossed that we’ll see them shortly at least the first tranche.”
She expects GSA and the FAR Council are expected to release the final rules in groups and not all in one batch, which would be nightmarish to comment on all the rules at one time.
The rules will cover items such as administrative requirements, supply chain requirements, acquisition planning and other contracting essentials.
“What we have been asking for is that as they roll out these rules that they have a solid explanatory section that talks about the reasons for the changes,” Kostro said.
The final rules are not the end of the process, however.
“FAR rules are one thing. The supplementals are a different mess altogether,” she said, referring to the FAR supplementals nearly every agency has that specific to their agency.
GSA has their own supplement for example, the GSAFAR. The Defense Department has the DFAR and Agriculture Department's version is the AGFAR.
Once the final FAR rules are out, the agencies will need to reconcile their supplementals to align with the FAR.
“We’re gonna have to comb the knots out the snarled hair,” she said. “But I think they are willing to do the work.”
Hear more of Kostro’s perspective around the FAR as well as our discussion of the Anthropic-DOD conflict, key policy areas for 2026, and the impact of the Homeland Security Department shutdown.
The episode lands Monday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern.