No. The FAR Council answered this twice in 2026, and the second answer is the definitive one. On September 18 it published the proposed rule rewriting FAR Part 36, and the rule states that the SF330 information collection "would remain unchanged." The form stays at its 07/2021 version. Comments on that rule close October 19, 2026.
The rest of this article is the full sequence, because how the answer arrived tells you where a future change would come from.
What Happened on August 14, 2026
Every federal form that collects information from the public has to be re-authorized by the Office of Management and Budget on a fixed cycle, usually every three years. That is the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the SF330 entered that process on May 22, 2026. The first comment window closed July 21.
On August 14, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Department of Defense, GSA, and NASA submitted the collection to OMB and opened a second window, which closed on September 14, 2026. The docket is 2026-0168 and the OMB control number is 9000-0157.
The notice describes the request as "an extension of a previously approved information collection requirement." Nothing in it proposes a change to the form, and the burden estimate did not move from May. The notice says the comment received "did not change the estimate of the burden."
What the One Comment Asked For
Exactly one comment was filed in the July window. The notice records that the respondent asked for "updates for the SF 330 form, aiming to modernize the form and reduce administrative burdens," in three specific pieces.
| What was requested | Why it matters in practice |
|---|---|
| An official editable Microsoft Word version of the form | The government publishes a PDF, so firms rebuild the layout by hand or buy something to do it for them |
| Updated contact-information blocks | The blocks do not reflect how firms and agencies actually route a submittal and its questions today |
| Date fields for proposal due dates and amendment acknowledgments | Nothing on the form records which amendment a submittal answers, so that compliance has to be tracked somewhere else |
Note who wrote that list. None of it is a policy position. Those are the observations of somebody who has assembled a submittal recently and knows where the minutes go. It is the most modest possible version of a complaint firms have been making for years, and it is worth reading as a measure of how little the industry is actually asking for.
What "Would Require Rulemaking" Means
The FAR Council's response, in full:
The FAR Council appreciates the feedback received. The revisions to the SF 330 recommended by the commenter would require rulemaking. The respondent will have the opportunity to provide feedback when proposed changes to FAR Part 36 are published for comment soon as part of FAR Case 2026-010, Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul parts 14, 28, and 36.
In practice, a Paperwork Reduction Act renewal is the wrong door for a form change. Its job is to re-authorize the collection and test the burden estimate. Changing what the form asks for means amending FAR Part 36, and that runs through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
The right door now has a number attached to it. FAR Case 2026-010 covers Parts 14, 28, and 36, and it is the reason Part 36 was left out of the overhaul's first round of proposed rules. The August notice said the proposed changes would publish "soon" and gave no date. "Soon" turned out to be 35 days — the rule published on September 18, adding Part 52 to the case, and the next section covers what it says.
What the September 18 Rule Actually Says
The rule the FAR Council promised published on September 18, 2026: 91 FR 59534, FAR Case 2026-010, RIN 9000-AO83, covering Parts 14, 28, 36, and 52. Comments close October 19, 2026. The form is the narrow part of it; the selection criteria and debriefs are where the rule moves, covered in what the FAR Part 36 proposed rule changes for A/E proposal teams.
On the form itself, the rule is explicit. Under its Paperwork Reduction Act analysis it addresses OMB Control No. 9000-0157, Architect-Engineer Qualifications (SF 330), and says the changes "would not affect the information collection or the paperwork burden previously approved by OMB. The collection would remain unchanged."
The rewritten Part 36 also keeps the SF330 doing the same job. Proposed 36.202-5 says a firm's qualifications "as listed in the SF 330, Part II—General Qualifications as well as the SF 330, Part I—Contract-Specific Qualifications, must be used to evaluate firms" before an A/E award, with Part I required above the simplified acquisition threshold and Part II for general qualifications. That is the same division of labor the form has always had.
So the commenter's three requests — an editable Word version, updated contact blocks, date fields for due dates and amendment acknowledgments — did not arrive. The rule they were pointed toward came, and it left the form alone. Rule read in full 2026-09-21.
What did change is everything around the form. The proposed Part 36 reorganizes A/E procurement into three lifecycle subparts and carries no list of standard A/E evaluation criteria — the six factors at FAR 36.602-1 that most solicitations started from. The form you fill out is stable. The basis on which it gets judged is what is in play, and that is covered in what the FAR overhaul changes for A/E firms.
Why One Comment Is the Real Finding
One comment. On a form that roughly 400 firms file about 1,600 times a year, and that generates more grumbling than any other document in federal A/E procurement.
The June piece argued that a comment naming a specific problem and proposing a concrete fix is the kind that gets read. That is precisely what the single comment did, and the answer was: right instinct, wrong process, come back when Part 36 opens. That is not a brush-off. It is the system behaving as designed, and it settles something the June piece could only guess at. The SF330's design is now formally attached to the FAR overhaul rather than to its own renewal cycle.
Which Comment Window Is Open Now
The renewal window closed on September 14, 2026, and it was never the one that mattered for the form's design. It asked whether the collection is still necessary and whether the burden estimate is accurate — not what the form should look like. A comment about Section F formatting would have received the same answer the first one did.
The window that is open now is the Part 36 proposed rule, and it closes October 19, 2026. This is the door the FAR Council pointed at, and it is the one where the design of A/E procurement is genuinely in play. Comments go through regulations.gov citing "FAR Case 2026-010".
Two things are worth commenting on if they affect your firm. The absent evaluation criteria, which determine what your SF330 is judged against. And the burden the current form imposes — the agencies estimate the collection at 46,632 hours across 1,608 annual responses, and the rule states it expects no change to that figure. If a routine Part I submittal costs your team several times the per-response figure that implies, saying so with your own number is the substantive version of that comment.
Knowing your own number is the harder half, and most firms do not track it. Firms that keep staff and project records as structured data rather than as finished documents can see where submittal hours actually go, which is what RFPM.ai is built around and also what tells you how many pursuits you can realistically support. Your team still decides which people and projects belong in the package.
Trade associations such as ACEC also submit consolidated comments, which for a single firm is usually the higher-impact route.
What This Means for the SF330 You Are Filing Now
Nothing changes. The form is the 07/2021 version and it will still be the 07/2021 version this fall. The section-by-section requirements are unchanged, keeping Part II current is still an annual discipline, and if a revision ever does land through FAR Case 2026-010, it arrives with its own proposed rule, its own comment period, and its own lead time.
One thing did change, and the watch list can now be closed for this cycle. Before August 14, "is the SF330 changing" was a question with no venue attached. On August 14 it got one, and on September 18 that venue answered: the collection remains unchanged. The next time this question reopens, it will be through a Part 36 rulemaking, and it will arrive with its own proposed rule and its own comment period.
If your work is mostly state and local, none of this reaches you. State DOT prequalification runs on each state's own forms and its own cycles, and those change on schedules of their own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the SF330 changing in 2026?
No. Two separate federal actions in 2026 reached the same answer. The Paperwork Reduction Act renewal extended the form's information collection without redesigning it. Then the Part 36 proposed rule, published September 18, 2026 at 91 FR 59534, stated that the SF330 collection under OMB Control No. 9000-0157 "would remain unchanged." The current version stays the 07/2021 one.
Is there still a comment period open on the SF330?
Not on the form's renewal — that window closed September 14, 2026. The open window is on the FAR Part 36 proposed rule, which closes October 19, 2026 under FAR Case 2026-010. That rule does not change the form, but it does change how A/E qualifications are evaluated, which is the more consequential of the two.
What is FAR Case 2026-010?
It is the FAR overhaul case covering architect-engineer services. Part 36 was left out of the four proposed rules published on June 23, 2026, and sat in this case instead. Its proposed rule published September 18, 2026 at 91 FR 59534, covering Parts 14, 28, 36, and 52, with comments closing October 19. Any SF330 redesign would travel through a case like this one.
Which version of the SF330 should I be using?
The version dated 07/2021, which is current and stays current until a revision publishes through rulemaking. Neither the August 14 renewal nor the September 18 proposed rule alters the form. If you are assembling a submittal this fall, nothing about the sections, the codes, or the page limits has changed.