Market Research Required on Task Orders Contracting officers must conduct market research before awarding a task or delivery order worth more than $100,000 under a new interim rule. The Federal Acquisition Regulation councils said the rule will encourage competition for orders under indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts. The rule was effective June 16. It implements Section 826 of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. In addition, it requires contractors to conduct market research before they purchase noncommercial items worth more than $5 million. In other FAR changes: The councils adopted a final rule, superseding an interim rule, to implement the use of the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS) to fulfill small business subcontracting reporting requirements. The councils adopted a final rule, superseding an interim rule, requiring online posting of justification and approval documents for sole-source awards. Those documents have always been public information, but will now be available on FedBizOpps. Under an interim rule, construction contractors are no longer required to submit employees’ social security numbers and addresses in their payroll reports to the government. The Labor Department initiated the change to protect employees’ privacy.