On March 4, 2025, the Principal Director, Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy (DPCAP), issued Class Deviation 2025-O0003, Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity in Federal Contracts, directing contracting officers to remove, replace, and not enforce Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) solicitation provisions and contract clauses associated with Executive Order (E.O.) 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity, which was revoked by E.O. 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.
The class deviation also implements direction to remove the term “gender” wherever it occurs in the FAR to comply with E.O. 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.
Class Deviation 2025-O0003, Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity in Federal Contracts, is available in full on the DPCAP website at the following location:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000368-25-DPCAP.pdf
DPCAP maintains repositories of policy guidance, DoD Class Deviations, and links to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and Procedures, Guidance, and Information (PGI) on 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
