Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions
FAR 52.251-1 Government Supply Sources
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No mandate in the clause or in FAR 51.107. Primes carry it in flowdown lists as the vehicle for passing an authorization through: FAR 51.102(b) routes a subcontractor's authorization through the prime with the prime's approval, and without the clause in your subcontract there is no contractual basis for you to order against the prime's activity address code and no agreed treatment of title to what you buy.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition APR 2012 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Something somebody else has to issue you
The same day if the issuer is one of your own suppliers, months if it is an assessor or an underwriter.
An authorization to use Government supply sources on this contract, which the contracting officer may issue and which nothing in the clause requires anyone to ask for
FAR 52.251-1
When it is used
FAR 51.107: insert 52.251-1 'when the contracting officer authorizes the contractor to acquire supplies or services from a Government supply source.' The trigger is the authorization itself, not value, work type, or place of performance. FAR 51.101 limits who can be authorized: Government cost-reimbursement contracts; negotiated contracts where the agency determines that a substantial dollar portion is cost-reimbursement work; and contracts under 41 U.S.C. chapter 85 (Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled) for supplies directly supporting approved commodities or services. Fixed-price contractors get one narrow door — security equipment through GSA sources where the contract requires protection of security classified information. The sub-relevant sentence is FAR 51.102(b): 'Authorizations to subcontractors shall be issued through, and with the approval of, the contractor.' No authorization in hand means no clause and no ordering right, whatever the flowdown list says.
Read closely
The clause is one sentence with no lettered paragraphs, so the citation stays at it, and two of its three sentences are consequence rather than permission: title to all property acquired under an authorization vests in the Government unless the contract says otherwise, and 52.245-1 applies to all of it, which puts it on your property records. The contracting officer is the party who issues the authorization; FAR 51.102(b) is what routes a subcontractor's authorization through the prime and with the prime's approval, so the prime is the party who carries the request. Written form, named contract numbers, time limits and value caps are all in FAR 51.102, not here.
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.251-1, FAR 51.101, FAR 51.102 and FAR 51.107 (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.