II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 979 

To amend the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 

to incorporate the recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office relating to advance contracts, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 2, 2019 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform 

Act of 2006 to incorporate the recommendations made 

by the Government Accountability Office relating to advance contracts, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Advance Con5 tracts Enhancement Act’’ or the ‘‘FACE Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) the Post-Katrina Emergency Management 

2 and Reform Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–925; 120 

3 Stat. 1394) required the Federal Emergency Man4 agement Agency to establish advance contracts, 

5 which are established prior to disasters and are typi6 cally needed to quickly provide life-sustaining goods 

7 and services in the immediate aftermath of a dis8 aster; 

9 (2) the catastrophic hurricanes and wildfires in 

10 the United States in 2017 highlighted the impor11 tance of these advance contracts in disaster re12 sponse; 

13 (3) in a report issued by the Government Ac14 countability Office entitled ‘‘2017 Disaster Con15 tracting: Action Needed to Better Ensure More Ef16 fective Use and Management of Advance Contracts’’, 

17 the Government Accountability Office identified a 

18 number of challenges with advance contracts and 

19 recommended actions to improve management by the 

20 Federal Emergency Management Agency of these 

21 contracts for future disasters; and 

22 (4) section 691 of the Post-Katrina Emergency 

23 Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 791) 

24 should be amended to incorporate the recommenda25 tions made by the report described in paragraph (3) 


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1 to ensure more effective use and management of ad2 vance contracts. 

3 SEC. 3. FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY AD4 VANCE CONTRACTS. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 691 of the Post-Katrina 

6 Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 

7 791) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

8 ‘‘(e) UPDATED REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 

9 after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Admin10 istrator shall submit to the appropriate committees of 

11 Congress an updated report that contains— 

12 ‘‘(1) the information required in the initial re13 port under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection 

14 (a)(1); and 

15 ‘‘(2) an updated strategy described in sub16 section (a)(1)(C) that clearly defines— 

17 ‘‘(A) the objectives of advance contracts; 

18 ‘‘(B) how advance contracts contribute to 

19 disaster response operations of the Agency; and 

20 ‘‘(C) whether and how advance contracts 

21 should be prioritized in relation to new post-dis22 aster contract awards. 

23 ‘‘(f) ADDITIONAL DUTIES OF THE ADMINIS24 TRATOR.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) HEAD OF CONTRACTING.—The Adminis2 trator shall ensure that the head of contracting ac3 tivity of the Agency— 

4 ‘‘(A) not later than 270 days after the date 

5 of enactment of this subsection, updates the 

6 Disaster Contracting Desk Guide of the Agency 

7 to provide specific guidance— 

8 ‘‘(i) on whether and under what cir9 cumstances contracting officers should con10 sider using existing advance contracts en11 tered into in accordance with this section 

12 prior to making new post-disaster contract 

13 awards, and include this guidance in exist14 ing semi-annual training given to con15 tracting officers; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) for contracting officers to per17 form outreach to State and local govern18 ments on the potential benefits of estab19 lishing their own pre-negotiated advance 

20 contracts; 

21 ‘‘(B) adheres to hard copy contract file 

22 management requirements in effect to ensure 

23 that the files relating to advance contracts en24 tered into in accordance with this section are 

25 complete and up to date, whether the files will 


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1 be transferred into the Electronic Contract Fil2 ing System of the Agency or remain in hard 

3 copy format; 

4 ‘‘(C) notifies contracting officers of the 3- 

5 day time frame requirement for entering com6 pleted award documentation into the contract 

7 writing system of the Agency when executing 

8 notice to proceed documentation; 

9 ‘‘(D) not later than 180 days after the 

10 date of enactment of this subsection, revises the 

11 reporting methodology of the Agency to ensure 

12 that all disaster contracts are included in each 

13 quarterly report submitted to the appropriate 

14 congressional committees under this section on 

15 disaster contract actions; 

16 ‘‘(E) identifies a single centralized resource 

17 listing advance contracts entered into under 

18 this section and ensures that source is current 

19 and up to date and includes all available ad20 vance contracts; and 

21 ‘‘(F) communicates complete and up-to22 date information on available advance contracts 

23 to State and local governments to inform their 

24 advance contracting efforts. 


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1 ‘‘(2) MASTER ACQUISITION PLANNING SCHED2 ULE.—Not later than 180 days after the date of en3 actment of this subsection, the Administrator shall 

4 update and implement guidance for program office 

5 and acquisition personnel of the Agency to— 

6 ‘‘(A) identify acquisition planning time 

7 frames and considerations across the entire ac8 quisition planning process of the Agency; and 

9 ‘‘(B) clearly communicate the purpose and 

10 use of a master acquisition planning schedule.’’. 

11 (b) REPORT.—The Administrator of the Federal 

12 Emergency Management Agency shall regularly update 

13 the appropriate committees of Congress (as defined in sec14 tion 602 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Re15 form Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 701)) on the progress of the 

16 Federal Emergency Management Agency in implementing 

17 the recommendations of the Government Accountability 

18 Office in the report entitled ‘‘2017 Disaster Contracting: 

19 Action Needed to Better Ensure More Effective Use and 

20 Management of Advance Contracts’’, as required under 

21 section 691 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management 

22 Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 791), as amended by sub23 section (a). 

Æ 


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