Recompete

A recompete is the new competition for work that an existing contract already covers. It runs when that contract reaches the end of its period of performance. The incumbent defends the work and everyone else challenges for it.

"Recompete" is an industry term rather than a FAR term. The word appears nowhere in the FAR. What the FAR governs is every mechanism that decides when the competition happens, and whether it happens at all.

Citations on this page were read against FAR text at FAC 2026-01, effective 03/13/2026. Verify anything you plan to rely on against the current section.

What sets the recompete date

The period of performance is the base period plus each option period the government exercises. So the date you care about is not the award date. It is the last day of the last option the government chooses to exercise.

FAR 17.204(e) caps how far that can run: "Unless otherwise approved in accordance with agency procedures, the total of the basic and option periods shall not exceed 5 years in the case of services, and the total of the basic and option quantities shall not exceed the requirement for 5 years in the case of supplies." Read the two qualifiers as carefully as the number. An agency procedure can approve otherwise, and the same paragraph states that "these limitations do not apply to information technology contracts."

FAR 17.207(c) is the gate in front of each option. A contracting officer "may exercise options only after determining that" seven conditions hold. Two of them decide most recompete questions:

• (c)(3) — the option "is the most advantageous method of fulfilling the Government's need, price and other factors ... considered." The FAR text says most advantageous method, not "fair and reasonable price." The price test sits separately in 17.207(d), on one of three stated bases.
• (c)(7) — "The contractor's performance on this contract has been acceptable, e.g., received satisfactory ratings." The performance record is a condition of the option, not a formality. Paragraph (c)(6) adds past performance on other contract actions.

Two clauses that move the date

• FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999). The government may require continued performance at the contract rates. The option provision may be exercised more than once, but the total extension of performance hereunder shall not exceed 6 months. The notice period is a blank the agency fills in. The clause states no default.
• FAR 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (Mar 2000). The government must give "a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend" before it extends. The clause brackets 60 days as the figure unless the agency inserts another. It then says plainly: "The preliminary notice does not commit the Government to an extension." The duration cap in this clause is also a blank. The 5-year figure comes from 17.204(e), not from here.

When the competition slips

An agency that runs short of time does not have to compete on schedule. Two authorities under FAR 6.302 permit an award without full and open competition:

• FAR 6.302-1 — "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements."
• FAR 6.302-2 — "Unusual and compelling urgency." This one carries its own limit. Paragraph (d)(1)(ii) states that the total period of performance "may not exceed one year, including all options, unless the head of the agency determines that exceptional circumstances apply." Paragraph (d)(3) applies that limit above the simplified acquisition threshold.

The industry calls a short award of this kind a "bridge." The FAR does not use that word. Neither authority is a general extension power, and the one-year ceiling belongs to 6.302-2 alone.

Where the dates come from

Award data is public, and it is the only reliable input a challenger has before a solicitation exists.

• FPDS. FAR 4.601 defines a contract action report as data "required to be entered into the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)." FAR 4.603(b) directs agencies to use FPDS "to maintain publicly available information about all unclassified contract actions exceeding the micro-purchase threshold." FAR 4.604(b)(2) requires the report "within three business days after contract award."
• Award synopses. FAR 5.301(a)(1) requires a synopsis of awards above $25,000. That threshold is conditional, not universal. It reaches only an award covered by a trade agreement, or one "likely to result in the award of any subcontracts." Paragraph (b) then lists seven exceptions.

One practical warning. A recompete watch depends on one field: the end date of the period of performance. That field is frequently absent, empty or malformed. Treat a missing end date as unknown. Never treat it as today, and never treat it as out of range.

Incumbent and incumbency

An incumbent is the contractor performing the work now. The FAR uses the word but never defines it as a term of art. It appears descriptively, for example in the title of FAR 22.1008-2, "Successorship with incumbent contractor collective bargaining agreement."

FAR 17.605(c) states the underlying logic more plainly than anything else in the regulation: "Replacement of an incumbent contractor is usually based largely upon expectation of meaningful improvement in performance or cost." Read the scope before you quote it. Subpart 17.6 covers management and operating contracts for the Department of Energy and other agencies with the statutory authority. It is not a general rule. It is still the clearest statement of what a challenger must show.

Incumbency gives the holder a performance record written on this exact requirement, knowledge of the work, and no transition risk to explain. Incumbency also exposes the holder. That same performance record sits in front of the evaluator, the price is a known baseline, and the size status can change under the contract.

The set-aside can change under the incumbent

FAR 52.219-28, Postaward Small Business Program Rerepresentation (Jan 2025) requires a small business contractor to rerepresent its size and socioeconomic status. The clause names the triggers:

• Within 30 days after execution of a novation agreement (b)(1).
• Within 30 days after a merger or acquisition that does not require a novation (b)(2).
• Within 60 to 120 days before the end of the fifth year of the contract (b)(3)(i).
• Within 60 to 120 days before the date the contract specifies for exercising any option after that (b)(3)(ii).

The clause defines a long-term contract as "a contract of more than five years in duration, including options." It excludes a contract that passes five years only through a cumulative extension of up to six months under 52.217-8.

Two precision points. First, the option trigger reaches only long-term contracts, and only options after the fifth year, not every option on an ordinary contract. Second, the clause says nothing about what happens to the contract when a contractor rerepresents as other than small. Those consequences sit in SBA regulation. This page does not cite them, because they were not verified to the standard the rest of the page holds.

The mistake that makes this term matter

The recompete arrives as a solicitation, and it feels like the start of something. There is a due date, a page limit, and thirty days of visible work to do. A team clears the calendar and writes hard.

They are not early. They are eighteen months late.

The incumbent spent those months performing the work and building the performance record the evaluator will read. The requirement took its shape in a market research round nobody answered. The contracting officer already worked the option decision under FAR 17.207 against a record the challenger has never seen. By the time the RFP is public, somebody else has already written every input that decides the award. The proposal is real work, honestly done, against a question that closed a year ago.

What goes wrong in practice

Teams read the option date as the recompete date. An exercised option means there is no competition this year. The recompete date is the end of the last option, and that is a decision the agency has not made yet.

Teams take the end date once and never re-check it. FAR 52.217-8 can add up to six months. An urgency award under FAR 6.302-2 can add up to a year. A single stale date quietly moves a whole capture plan.

The public record is incomplete. The award record often omits the period-of-performance end date. A watch list built on that field alone silently drops the contracts it cannot read.

Nobody checks whether the set-aside survives. An incumbent that rerepresents changes the competitive field. A company planning a small business challenge against last year's field plans against a field that no longer exists.

The incumbent assumes the option. FAR 17.207(c) is a seven-condition determination that includes the performance record. An incumbent who treats renewal as automatic has stopped managing the one condition it controls.

Challengers write against the incumbent instead of to the evaluation factors. Criticism of the current provider earns no points. The stated factors are the only scorecard.

What to do

1. Build the watch list from award records, not from solicitations.
2. Record the period-of-performance end date for every contract you want.
3. Track the option structure, not the end date alone.
4. Re-check each date on a schedule, because extensions move it.
5. Answer the market research notice for the requirement, a year ahead.
6. Read your own performance record before you challenge somebody else's.
7. Confirm the set-aside status the agency will use, because it can change.

What a recompete is not

A recompete is not a scheduled event. Instead of competing, an agency may do any of the following:

• Exercise another contract option.
• Extend services under FAR 52.217-8.
• Award under a FAR 6.302 exception.
• Move the requirement to a different vehicle.
• Stop buying the service.

A recompete is also not a pure past performance contest. FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv) states that an offeror "without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available ... may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance." A challenger with no record on the requirement is not automatically behind on that factor.

Silas™ reads public post-award contract records, extracts the period-of-performance end date, and surfaces the contracts that reach it inside a watch window.