The letter, jointly submitted by the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) and the Association of American Universities (AAU), addresses the Department of Defense’s (DoD) proposed updates to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) (Case 2013-D-018), specifically regarding new requirements for safeguarding covered defense information in contracts. While COGR and AAU acknowledge the DoD’s efforts to reduce the immediate compliance burden for universities by postponing the mandatory implementation of the NIST Special Publication 800-171 requirements until December 31, 2017, they express concerns about potential confusion caused by inconsistencies between DFARS clauses 252.204-7008 and 252.204-7012. The letter points out that while one clause seems to require contractors to gain pre-award approval from the DoD CIO for any variances, the other appears to only require post-award notification, creating uncertainty about the correct process and incentives for compliance.
Furthermore, COGR and AAU reiterate the importance of clarifying that contracts categorized as fundamental research—which are traditionally exempt from certain export control and information safeguarding requirements—should not be inadvertently subjected to these new DFARS provisions. They propose revisions to regulatory definitions to ensure fundamental research remains clearly excluded and recommend that both prime and subcontractors whose work does not involve covered defense information should be explicitly exempt from the safeguarding requirements until such information is handled. These recommendations aim to maintain appropriate protections for defense-related information while avoiding undue regulatory burden on university-based fundamental research that does not involve sensitive or export-controlled information.
