On January 8, 2025, the FAR Council announced it was withdrawing the January 30, 2024 Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting proposed rule to amend the FAR. The proposed rule would have prevented federal contractors and subcontractors from seeking and considering applicants’ prior compensation history when making employment decisions. It would have also required contractors and subcontractors to disclose the compensation to be offered for positions supporting a government contract. The January 8 release cited the limited time remaining in the Biden–Harris Administration and the administration’s desire to focus on other priorities as the reason for withdrawing the proposed rule.

On January 13, 2025, the FAR Council formally withdrew a proposed rule related to the Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk. The proposed rule, originally published on November 14, 2022, would have required certain government contractors to disclose Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions and establish science-based reduction targets. DoD, GSA, and NASA cited the lack of time remaining in the Biden–Harris Administration as a primary reason for withdrawing the proposed rule. According to the Federal Register release, the proposed rule received comments “indicat[ing] evolving practices and use of standards in industry, and since the publication of the proposed rule, differing domestic and international regulations covering greenhouse gas disclosures have been created.”

The notices of withdrawal of the two proposed rules can be found here and here.