II 

Calendar No. 575 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4516 

[Report No. 117–219] 

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, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Mr. 

RUBIO, and Ms. STABENOW) introduced the following bill; which was read 

twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

DECEMBER 5, 2022 

Reported by Mr. PETERS, without amendment 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating Obstructive 

3 National Security Underreporting of Legitimate Threats 

4 (CONSULT) Act of 2022’’. 

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

6 Congress makes the following findings: 

7 (1) The Federal Government’s reliance on con8 tractors for mission support services can create po9 tential organizational conflicts of interest related to 

10 national security due to competing interests as a re11 sult of business relationships with foreign adver12 sarial nations and entities. 

13 (2) It is imperative that contractors providing 

14 mission support services to the Federal Government 

15 related to the national security are not providing 

16 mission support services for foreign adversaries with 

17 regards to efforts that are counter to the national 

18 security and foreign policy interests of the United 

19 States, including for crimes against humanity de20 clared by the Secretary of State. 

21 (3) Protecting against organizational conflicts 

22 of interest related to foreign adversarial nations and 

23 entities in Federal mission support services is essen24 tial to the national security and economic security of 

25 the United States. 


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1 SEC. 3. GOVERNMENTWIDE PROCUREMENT POLICY AND 

2 GUIDANCE TO MITIGATE ORGANIZATIONAL 

3 CONFLICTS OF INTEREST RELATING TO NA4 TIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY. 

5 (a) POLICY AND GUIDANCE.— 

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

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Of8 fice of Federal Procurement Policy, in coordination 

9 with the heads of relevant agencies, including the 

10 Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, 

11 the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary 

12 of the Treasury, the Director of National Intel13 ligence, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of 

14 State, shall develop governmentwide procurement 

15 policy and guidance to mitigate and eliminate orga16 nizational conflict of interests relating to contracts 

17 involving national security matters or foreign policy 

18 interests. 

19 (2) ELEMENTS.—The procurement policy and 

20 guidance developed under paragraph (1) shall in21 clude the following elements: 

22 (A) Updating guidance relating to organi23 zational conflicts of interest with foreign enti24 ties and governments that are contrary to the 

25 national security or foreign policy interests of 

26 the United States. 


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1 (B) Providing a definition of ‘‘consulting 

2 contract’’, considering the definitions of ‘‘advi3 sory and assistance services’’ and ‘‘professional 

4 and consultant services’’ provided under sec5 tions 2.101 and 31.205–33, respectively, of the 

6 Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

7 (C) Providing executive agencies with solic8 itation provisions and contract clauses that re9 quire offerors and contractors for Federal con10 sulting contracts— 

11 (i) when submitting an offer, to dis12 close any beneficial ownership, active con13 tracts, contracts held within the last five 

14 years, or any other information relevant to 

15 potential organizational conflicts of interest 

16 with respect to contracts described in para17 graph (3); and 

18 (ii) while performing the resulting 

19 contract, to disclose information relevant 

20 to potential organizational conflicts of in21 terest and to limit future work as nec22 essary to address potential conflicts with 

23 respect to contracts described in paragraph 

24 (3). 


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1 (D) Providing that organizational conflicts 

2 of interest found to be contrary to the national 

3 security or foreign policy interests of the United 

4 States may be grounds for denial of a contract, 

5 and failure to disclose such a potential conflict 

6 may be grounds for termination for cause, sus7 pension, or debarment of a contractor. 

8 (3) CONTRACTS DESCRIBED.—Contracts de9 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

10 (A) Contracts with any of the following en11 tities: 

12 (i) The Government of the People’s 

13 Republic of China. 

14 (ii) The Chinese Communist Party. 

15 (iii) Any Chinese state-owned entity. 

16 (iv) The People’s Liberation Army. 

17 (v) Any entity on the Non-SDN Chi18 nese Military-Industrial Complex Compa19 nies List (NS–CMIC–List) maintained by 

20 the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the 

21 Department of the Treasury. 

22 (vi) Any Chinese military company 

23 identified by the Secretary of Defense pur24 suant to section 1237(b) of the Strom 

25 Thurmond National Defense Authorization 


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1 Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (Public Law 

2 105–261; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note). 

3 (vii) The Government of the Russian 

4 Federation, any Russian state-owned enti5 ty, or any entity sanctioned by the Sec6 retary of the Treasury under Executive 

7 Order 13662 (‘‘Blocking Property of Addi8 tional Persons Contributing to the Situa9 tion in Ukraine’’). 

10 (viii) The government or any state11 owned entity of any country determined by 

12 the Secretary of State to be a state spon13 sor of terrorism under section 1754(c) of 

14 the John S. McCain National Defense Au15 thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (50 

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

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

18 section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act 

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

20 (ix) Any entity included on any of the 

21 following lists maintained by the Depart22 ment of Commerce: 

23 (I) The Entity List set forth in 

24 Supplement No. 4 to part 744 of the 

25 Export Administration Regulations 


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1 under subchapter C of chapter VII of 

2 title 15, Code of Federal Regulations. 

3 (II) The Denied Persons List as 

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

5 Export Administration Regulations. 

6 (III) The Unverified List set 

7 forth in Supplement No. 6 to part 

8 744 of the Export Administration 

9 Regulations. 

10 (IV) The Military End User List 

11 set forth in Supplement No. 7 to part 

12 744 of the Export Administration 

13 Regulations. 

14 (x) An entity determined to pose a 

15 risk to the national security or foreign pol16 icy interests of the United States, as deter17 mined by the Office of Federal Procure18 ment Policy in coordination with the heads 

19 of relevant agencies listed in subsection 

20 (a)(1). 

21 (B) Contracts for consulting services relat22 ing to any crimes against humanity as deter23 mined by the Secretary of State. 

24 (b) REVISION OF FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULA25 TION.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:20 Dec 06, 2022 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4516.RS S4516

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1 ment of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory 

2 Council shall revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation to 

3 implement the requirements of this section. 


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Calendar No. 575 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4516 

[Report No. 117–219] 

A BILL 

To require the Office of Federal Procurement Polforeign policy, and for other purposes. flict of interests relating to national security and icy and guidance to mitigate organizational con- icy to develop governmentwide procurement polDECEMBER 5, 2022 

Reported without amendment 


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