Senate Panel Approves Contracting Legislation The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved sweeping legislation designed to promote competition, especially in task orders under GSA schedules and other multiple-award contracts. The Accountability in Government Contracting Act, S. 680, would extend the Defense Department’s Section 803 rule to all civilian agencies, requiring contracting officers to attempt to get at least three bids on task orders over $100,000. The committee’s Aug. 1 approval sends the bill to the full Senate for debate after the August recess. “This bill would strengthen competition in federal contracting, improve procurement outcomes, and help to curtail waste of taxpayers’ money,” said the prime sponsor, Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME. “With federal contract purchases now exceeding $400 billion a year and with the alarming waste we have discovered through our investigations, the need for vigorous reform of our contracting operations is evident.” Several industry groups endorsed the competition requirement on task orders, but strongly opposed a provision that would allow bid protests on task orders above $5 million. Other provisions of the bill: •Contracting officers must draft a statement of work for any task order over $5 million. •Bidders on those orders would be entitled to a post-award debriefing. •Agencies would be required to publish prompt notice of sole-source orders above the simplified acquisition threshold, along with the justification for sole-sourcing. •“Undefinitized contracts,” usually awarded in emergencies, would have to have all the blanks filled in within 180 days. The practice of issuing contracts missing key terms, such as price, scope or schedule, “is out of control,” Collins said. •Award fees would be more closely tied to performance. Several provisions are aimed at recruiting and keeping contracting officers. Sen. Collins softened a provision that would have required sole-source contracts awarded because of urgent and compelling need, such as after a natural disaster, to be competed within 150 days. The final version of the bill lengthened that to 270 days, but industry groups said no exact deadline should be written into the law. At a July 17 hearing before the committee, Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, argued against allowing protests on task orders. Collins said she was surprised by the industry opposition. “Our goal is to help smaller businesses, medium-sized businesses who feel they could have competed and were shut out and to get them an affordable, fast, reliable remedy at GAO.” But Soloway said protests would lead to “costly litigation that would be very, very burdensome for small and mid-tier companies, especially.” The House has passed its own procurement bill, H.R. 1362, sponsored by Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-CA. It contains some of the same provisions, but would also require agencies to minimize the use of sole-source contracts and “to maximize, to the fullest extent practicable, the use of fixed-price type contracts.” (SAA, 3/23)