In its Q&A during a proposal, it appears the CO is imposing that Prime Contractors issue a CPFF subcontract to their proposed Subcontractors.
The question: "Could XXX kindly confirm that the detailed budgets from major subcontractors may be either CPFF or T&M?"
The Government's answer: "Cost-plus-fixed-fee, (term and/or completion)"
If you read the language word for word, one could interpret the response to only address the budget format, but there is a very high probability that the CO will expect a CPFF subcontract (especially since it is asking for a consent to subcontract request). To add more context, the CO is not allowing the Subcontractor to submit its proprietary pricing data (indirect costs and fee buildup) directly to the Government, as is standard practice. The CO is basically force Subcontractors to share their proprietary pricing data with the Primes if they want to bid on this work.
I don't believe the Government can impose a specific subcontract type, nor tie evaluation to the mechanism a Prime is using to engage a Sub (unless there is some risk analysis) - but I haven't found any FAR clauses or past litigation and precedent dealing with this. Can anyone refute my understanding, or lead me to any relevant regulations?