IA

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. J. RES. 194

Granting the consent of the Congress to amendments made by Maryland,

Virginia, and the District of Columbia to the Washington Metropolitan

Area Transit Regulation Compact.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEPTEMBER 17, 1996

Mr. DAVIS (for himself, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. WYNN, Mr. WOLF, Mr. MORAN,

and Mr. HOYER) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Granting the consent of the Congress to amendments made

by Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to

the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Regulation

Compact.

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives

2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO AMENDMENTS TO

4 COMPACT.

5 The Congress consents to the amendments of the

6 State of Maryland (chapter 252, 1995 Acts of the Mary7 land General Assembly and chapter 489, 1996 Laws of

8 Maryland), the amendments of the Commonwealth of Vir-
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1 ginia (chapter 150, 1995 Acts of Assembly of Virginia),

2 and the amendments of the District of Columbia (D.C.

3 Law 11–138) of title III of the Washington Metropolitan

4 Area Transit Regulation Compact. Such amendments are

5 substantially as follows:

6 (1) Section 3 is amended to read as follows:

7 ‘‘WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT ZONE

8 ‘‘3. There is hereby created the Washington Metro9 politan Area Transit Zone which shall embrace the Dis10 trict of Columbia, the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church,

11 and Fairfax and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, and

12 Loudoun and political subdivisions of the Commonwealth

13 of Virginia located within those counties, and the counties

14 of Montgomery and Prince Georges in the State of Mary15 land and political subdivisions of the State of Maryland

16 located in said counties.’’.

17 (2) Subsection (a) of section 5 is amended to

18 read as follows:

19 ‘‘(a) The Authority shall be governed by a Board of

20 six Directors consisting of two Directors for each signa21 tory. For Virginia, the Directors shall be appointed by the

22 Northern Virginia Transportation Commission; for the

23 District of Columbia, by the Council of the District of Co24 lumbia; and for Maryland, by the Washington Suburban

25 Transit Commission. For Virginia and Maryland, the Di26 rectors shall be appointed from among the members of the
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1 appointing body, except as otherwise provided herein, and

2 shall serve for a term coincident with their term on the

3 appointing body. A Director may be removed or suspended

4 from office only as provided by the law of the signatory

5 from which he was appointed. The appointing authorities

6 shall also appoint an alternate for each Director, who may

7 act only in the absence of the Director for whom he has

8 been appointed an alternate, except that, in the case of

9 the District of Columbia where only one Director and his

10 alternate are present, such alternate may act on behalf

11 of the absent Director. Each alternate shall serve at the

12 pleasure of the appointing authority. In the event of a va13 cancy in the Office of Director or alternate, it shall be

14 filled in the same manner as an original appointment.’’.

15 (3) Subsection (a) of section 8 is amended to

16 read as follows:

17 ‘‘(a) Four Directors or alternates consisting of at

18 least one Director or alternate appointed from each Signa19 tory, shall constitute a quorum and no action by the Board

20 shall be effective unless a majority of the Board present

21 and voting, which majority shall include at least one Direc22 tor or alternate from each Signatory, concur therein: Pro23 vided, however, That a plan of financing may be adopted

24 or a mass transit plan adopted, altered, revised, or amend-
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1 ed by the unanimous vote of the Directors representing

2 any two Signatories.’’.

3 (4) Subsection (b) of section 14 is amended to read

4 as follows:

5 ‘‘(b) It shall be the duty and responsibility of each

6 member of the Board to serve as liaison between the

7 Board and the body which appointed him to the Board.

8 To provide a framework for regional participation in the

9 planning process, the Board shall create technical commit10 tees concerned with planning and collection and analyses

11 of data relative to decision-making in the transportation

12 planning process and the Mayor and Council of the Dis13 trict of Columbia, the component governments of the

14 Northern Virginia Transportation District and the Wash15 ington Suburban Transit District shall appoint represent16 atives to such technical committees and otherwise cooper17 ate with the Board in the formulation of a mass transit

18 plan, or in revisions, alterations or amendments thereof.’’.

19 (5) Subsections (a)(1), (a)(3), and (b) of section 15

20 are amended to read as follows:

21 ‘‘(a) Before a mass transit plan is adopted, altered,

22 revised or amended, the Board shall transmit such pro23 posed plan, alteration, revision or amendment for com24 ment to the following and to such other agencies as the

25 Board shall determine:
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1 ‘‘(1) The Mayor and Council of the District of

2 Columbia, the Northern Virginia Transportation

3 Commission and the Washington Suburban Transit

4 Commission; and

5 ‘‘(2) the transportation agencies of the signato6 ries;

7 ‘‘(b) A copy of the proposed mass transit plan,

8 amendment or revision, shall be kept at the office of the

9 Board and shall be available for public inspection. Infor10 mation with respect thereto shall be released to the public.

11 After thirty days’ notice published once a week for two

12 successive weeks in one or more newspapers of general cir13 culation within the zone, a public hearing shall be held

14 with respect to the proposed plan, alteration, revision or

15 amendment. The thirty days’ notice shall begin to run on

16 the first day the notice appears in any such newspaper.

17 The Board shall consider the evidence submitted and

18 statements and comments made at such meeting and may

19 make any changes in the proposed plan, amendment or

20 revision which it deems appropriate and such changes may

21 be made without further hearing.’’.

22 (6) Subsection (a) of section 70 is amended to read

23 as follows:

24 ‘‘(a) As soon as practical after the closing of the fiscal

25 year, an audit shall be made of the financial accounts of
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1 the Authority. The audit shall be made by qualified cer2 tified public accountants selected by the Board, who shall

3 have no personal interest direct or indirect in the financial

4 affairs of the Authority or any of its officers or employees.

5 The report of audit shall be prepared in accordance with

6 generally accepted auditing principles and shall be filed

7 with the Chairman and other officers as the Board shall

8 direct. Copies of the report shall be distributed to each

9 Director, to the Congress, to the Mayor and Council of

10 the District of Columbia, to the Governors of Virginia and

11 Maryland, to the Washington Suburban Transit Commis12 sion, to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission

13 and to the governing bodies of the political subdivisions

14 located within the Zone which are parties to commitments

15 for participation in the financing of the Authority and

16 shall be made available for public distribution.’’.

17 (7) Section 73 is amended to read as follows:

18 ‘‘CONTRACTING AND PURCHASING

19 ‘‘73. (a)(1) Except as provided in subsections (b), (c),

20 and (f) of this section, and except in the case of procure21 ment procedures otherwise expressly authorized by stat22 ute, the Authority in conducting a procurement of prop23 erty, services, or construction shall:

24 ‘‘(A) obtain full and open competition through

25 the use of competitive procedures in accordance with

26 the requirements of this Section; and
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1 ‘‘(B) use the competitive procedure or combina2 tion of competitive procedures that is best suited

3 under the circumstances of the procurement.

4 ‘‘(2) In determining the competitive procedure

5 appropriate under the circumstances, the Authority

6 shall:

7 ‘‘(A) solicit sealed bids if:

8 ‘‘(i) time permits the solicitation, submis9 sion, and evaluation of sealed bids;

10 ‘‘(ii) the award will be made on the basis

11 of price and other price-related factors;

12 ‘‘(iii) it is not necessary to conduct discus13 sions with the responding sources about their

14 bids; and

15 ‘‘(iv) there is a reasonable expectation of

16 receiving more than one sealed bid; or

17 ‘‘(B) request competitive proposals if sealed

18 bids are not appropriate under clause (A) of this

19 paragraph.

20 ‘‘(b) The Authority may provide for the procurement

21 of property, services, or construction covered by this Sec22 tion using competitive procedures but excluding a particu23 lar source in order to establish or maintain an alternative

24 source or sources of supply for that property, service, or

25 construction if the Authority determines that excluding
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1 the source would increase or maintain competition and

2 would likely result in reduced overall costs for procure3 ment of property, services, or construction.

4 ‘‘(c) The Authority may use procedures other than

5 competitive procedures if:

6 ‘‘(1) the property, services, or construction

7 needed by the Authority is available from only one

8 responsible source and no other type of property,

9 services, or construction will satisfy the needs of the

10 Authority; or

11 ‘‘(2) the Authority’s need for the property, serv12 ices, or construction is of such an unusual and com13 pelling urgency that the Authority would be seriously

14 injured unless the Authority limits the number of

15 sources from which it solicits bids or proposals; or

16 ‘‘(3) the Authority determines that it is nec17 essary in the public interest to use procedures other

18 than competitive procedures in the particular pro19 curement; or

20 ‘‘(4) the property or services can be obtained

21 through federal or other governmental sources at

22 reasonable prices.

23 ‘‘(d) For the purpose of applying subsection (c)(1)

24 of this section:
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1 ‘‘(1) in the case of a contract for property, serv2 ices, or construction to be awarded on the basis of

3 acceptance of an unsolicited proposal, the property,

4 services, or construction shall be deemed to be avail5 able from only one responsible source if the source

6 has submitted an unsolicited proposal that dem7 onstrates a concept:

8 ‘‘(A) that is unique and innovative or, in

9 the case of a service, for which the source dem10 onstrates a unique capability to provide the

11 service; and

12 ‘‘(B) the substance of which is not other13 wise available to the Authority and does not re14 semble the substance of a pending competitive

15 procurement.

16 ‘‘(2) in the case of a follow-on contract for the

17 continued development or production of a major sys18 tem or highly specialized equipment or the continued

19 provision of highly specialized services, the property,

20 services, or construction may be deemed to be avail21 able from only the original source and may be pro22 cured through procedures other than competitive

23 procedures if it is likely that award to a source other

24 than the original source would result in:
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1 ‘‘(A) substantial duplication of cost to the

2 Authority that is not expected to be recovered

3 through competition; or

4 ‘‘(B) unacceptable delays in fulfilling the

5 Authority’s needs.

6 ‘‘(e) If the Authority uses procedures other than com7 petitive procedures to procure property, services, or con8 struction under subsection (c)(2) of this section, the Au9 thority shall request offers from as many potential sources

10 as is practicable under the circumstances.

11 ‘‘(f)(1) To promote efficiency and economy in con12 tracting, the Authority may use simplified acquisition pro13 cedures for purchases of property, services and construc14 tion.

15 ‘‘(2) For the purposes of this subsection, simplified

16 acquisition procedures may be used for purchases for an

17 amount that does not exceed the simplified acquisition

18 threshold adopted by the Federal Government.

19 ‘‘(3) A proposed purchase or contract for an amount

20 above the simplified acquisition threshold may not be di21 vided into several purchases or contracts for lesser

22 amounts in order to use the procedures under paragraph

23 (1) of this subsection.
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1 ‘‘(4) In using simplified acquisition procedures, the

2 Authority shall promote competition to the maximum ex3 tent practicable.

4 ‘‘(g) The Board shall adopt policies and procedures

5 to implement this Section. The policies and procedures

6 shall provide for publication of notice of procurements and

7 other actions designed to secure competition where com8 petitive procedures are used.

9 ‘‘(h) The Authority in its discretion may reject any

10 and all bids or proposals received in response to a solicita11 tion.’’.

12 (8) Section 81 is amended to read as follows:

13 ‘‘JURISDICTION OF COURTS

14 ‘‘81. The United States District Courts shall have

15 original jurisdiction, concurrent with the Courts of Mary16 land, Virginia and the District of Columbia, of all actions

17 brought by or against the Authority and to enforce sub18 poenas issued under this Title. Any such action initiated

19 in a State or District of Columbia Court shall be remov20 able to the appropriate United States District Court in

21 the manner provided by Act of June 25, 1948, as amended

22 (28 U.S.C. 1446).’’.

23 (9) Section 84 is amended to read as follows:

24 ‘‘AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS

25 ‘‘84. Amendments and supplements to this Title to

26 implement the purposes thereof may be adopted by legisla-
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1 tive action of any of the signatory parties concurred in

2 by all of the others. When one signatory adopts an amend3 ment or supplement to an existing section of the Compact.

4 that amendment shall not be immediately effective, and

5 the previously enacted provision(s) shall remain in effect

6 in each jurisdiction until the amendment or supplement

7 is approved by the other signatories and is consented to

8 by Congress.’’.

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