II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4516 

To require the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to develop governmentwide procurement policy and guidance to mitigate organizational conflict 

of interests relating to national security and foreign policy, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 13, 2022 

Ms. ERNST (for herself, Mr. PETERS, and Ms. HASSAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to develop governmentwide procurement policy and guidance 

to mitigate organizational conflict of interests relating 

to national security and foreign policy, 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 ‘‘Combating Obstructive 

5 National Security Underreporting of Legitimate Threats 

6 (CONSULT) Act of 2022’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) The Federal Government’s reliance on con4 tractors for mission support services can create po5 tential organizational conflicts of interest related to 

6 national security due to competing interests as a re7 sult of business relationships with foreign adver8 sarial nations and entities. 

9 (2) It is imperative that contractors providing 

10 mission support services to the Federal Government 

11 related to the national security are not providing 

12 mission support services for foreign adversaries with 

13 regards to efforts that are counter to the national 

14 security and foreign policy interests of the United 

15 States, including for crimes against humanity de16 clared by the Secretary of State. 

17 (3) Protecting against organizational conflicts 

18 of interest related to foreign adversarial nations and 

19 entities in Federal mission support services is essen20 tial to the national security and economic security of 

21 the United States. 

22 SEC. 3. GOVERNMENTWIDE PROCUREMENT POLICY AND 

23 GUIDANCE TO MITIGATE ORGANIZATIONAL 

24 CONFLICTS OF INTEREST RELATING TO NA25 TIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY. 

26 (a) POLICY AND GUIDANCE.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

2 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Of3 fice of Federal Procurement Policy, in coordination 

4 with the heads of relevant agencies, including the 

5 Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, 

6 the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary 

7 of the Treasury, the Director of National Intel8 ligence, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of 

9 State, shall develop governmentwide procurement 

10 policy and guidance to mitigate and eliminate orga11 nizational conflict of interests relating to contracts 

12 involving national security matters or foreign policy 

13 interests. 

14 (2) ELEMENTS.—The procurement policy and 

15 guidance developed under paragraph (1) shall in16 clude the following elements: 

17 (A) Updating guidance relating to organi18 zational conflicts of interest with foreign enti19 ties and governments that are contrary to the 

20 national security or foreign policy interests of 

21 the United States. 

22 (B) Providing a definition of ‘‘consulting 

23 contract’’, considering the definitions of ‘‘advi24 sory and assistance services’’ and ‘‘professional 

25 and consultant services’’ provided under secVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Jul 16, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4516.IS S4516

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1 tions 2.101 and 31.205–33, respectively, of the 

2 Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

3 (C) Providing executive agencies with solic4 itation provisions and contract clauses that re5 quire offerors and contractors for Federal con6 sulting contracts— 

7 (i) when submitting an offer, to dis8 close any beneficial ownership, active con9 tracts, contracts held within the last five 

10 years, or any other information relevant to 

11 potential organizational conflicts of interest 

12 with respect to contracts described in para13 graph (3); and 

14 (ii) while performing the resulting 

15 contract, to disclose information relevant 

16 to potential organizational conflicts of in17 terest and to limit future work as nec18 essary to address potential conflicts with 

19 respect to contracts described in paragraph 

20 (3). 

21 (D) Providing that organizational conflicts 

22 of interest found to be contrary to the national 

23 security or foreign policy interests of the United 

24 States may be grounds for denial of a contract, 

25 and failure to disclose such a potential conflict 


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1 may be grounds for termination for cause, sus2 pension, or debarment of a contractor. 

3 (3) CONTRACTS DESCRIBED.—Contracts de4 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

5 (A) Contracts with any of the following en6 tities: 

7 (i) The Government of the People’s 

8 Republic of China. 

9 (ii) The Chinese Communist Party. 

10 (iii) Any Chinese state-owned entity. 

11 (iv) The People’s Liberation Army. 

12 (v) Any entity on the Non-SDN Chi13 nese Military-Industrial Complex Compa14 nies List (NS–CMIC–List) maintained by 

15 the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the 

16 Department of the Treasury. 

17 (vi) Any Chinese military company 

18 identified by the Secretary of Defense pur19 suant to section 1237(b) of the Strom 

20 Thurmond National Defense Authorization 

21 Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (Public Law 

22 105–261; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note). 

23 (vii) The Government of the Russian 

24 Federation, any Russian state-owned enti25 ty, or any entity sanctioned by the SecVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Jul 16, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4516.IS S4516

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1 retary of the Treasury under Executive 

2 Order 13662 (‘‘Blocking Property of Addi3 tional Persons Contributing to the Situa4 tion in Ukraine’’). 

5 (viii) The government or any state6 owned entity of any country determined by 

7 the Secretary of State to be a state spon8 sor of terrorism under section 1754(c) of 

9 the John S. McCain National Defense Au10 thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (50 

11 U.S.C. 4813(c)), section 40 of the Arms 

12 Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2779A), or 

13 section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act 

14 of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371). 

15 (ix) Any entity included on any of the 

16 following lists maintained by the Depart17 ment of Commerce: 

18 (I) The Entity List set forth in 

19 Supplement No. 4 to part 744 of the 

20 Export Administration Regulations 

21 under subchapter C of chapter VII of 

22 title 15, Code of Federal Regulations. 

23 (II) The Denied Persons List as 

24 described in section 764.3(a)(2) of the 

25 Export Administration Regulations. 


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1 (III) The Unverified List set 

2 forth in Supplement No. 6 to part 

3 744 of the Export Administration 

4 Regulations. 

5 (IV) The Military End User List 

6 set forth in Supplement No. 7 to part 

7 744 of the Export Administration 

8 Regulations. 

9 (x) An entity determined to pose a 

10 risk to the national security or foreign pol11 icy interests of the United States, as deter12 mined by the Office of Federal Procure13 ment Policy in coordination with the heads 

14 of relevant agencies listed in subsection 

15 (a)(1). 

16 (B) Contracts for consulting services relat17 ing to any crimes against humanity as deter18 mined by the Secretary of State. 

19 (b) REVISION OF FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULA20 TION.—Not later than one year after the date of the enact21 ment of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory 

22 Council shall revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation to 

23 implement the requirements of this section. 

Æ 


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