On March 4, 2025, the Principal Director of Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy (DPCAP) issued Class Deviation 2025-O0003. This directive focuses on restoring merit-based opportunities in federal contracts. It instructs contracting officers to remove, replace, and not enforce Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) solicitation provisions and contract clauses linked with Executive Order (E.O.) 11246 on Equal Employment Opportunity. This order was previously revoked by E.O. 14173, which aims at ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity.
Additionally, the class deviation mandates the removal of the term "gender" from the FAR in compliance with E.O. 14168. This executive order is titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.
The full text of Class Deviation 2025-O0003 can be accessed on the DPCAP website at: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000368-25-DPCAP.pdf
DPCAP provides repositories for policy guidance and maintains links to DoD Class Deviations as well as to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and Procedures, Guidance, and Information (PGI). These resources are available through their website:
- The DPCAP Policy Vault: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/index.html
- DoD Class Deviations: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/class_deviations.html
- DFARS and PGI: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfarspgi/current/index.html
