The Transportation Security Administration will begin following the Federal Acquisition Regulation June 23, according to a final rule published in the Federal Register.

TSA has been exempt from the FAR, and has operated under Federal Aviation Administration procurement rules. Among other things, TSA was exempt from small business set-aside requirements. Sens. John Kerry, D-MA, and Olympia Snowe, R-ME, persuaded Congress to repeal the exemption last year.

Four House members have formed the Smart Contracting Caucus to share information on procurement issues.

One of the founders, Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, has been a leading voice on those issues, but he is retiring at the end of the year. Other members are Reps. Joe Courtney, D-CT, Christopher Shays, R-CT, and Christopher Carney, D-PA.

Davis said the caucus will allow House members and staff to share information and hold briefings with experts. He said more than a dozen committees and subcommittees have jurisdiction over various contracting issues.

Davis has been resisting Democratic efforts to place new restrictions on contracting. “Short-term fixes and sound-bite solutions that rely more on anecdote than fact do not readily translate into effective reform of the contracting system,” the congressmen said in a letter to colleagues.

The market research firm Input has opened its library of 3,000 federal contracts for public use. The documents were acquired over several years via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Input says the library will allow contractors to view existing contracts before they come up for re-competition.

The library is available at www.input.com/corp/library/government.cfm.

SBA is considering a waiver of the nonmanufacturer rule for Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing (Drones, Miscellaneous Aircraft Accessories, and Components; Aircraft Launching Equipment), NAICS code 336413, Product Service Codes 1550, 1680 and 1720.

SBA believes no small business manufacturers supply these classes of products to the Federal government. Comments are due June 2.