II

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104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. J. RES. 194

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 24 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 20), 1996

Received

JOINT RESOLUTION

Granting the consent of 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,
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1 SECTION 1. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO AMENDMENTS TO

2 COMPACT.

3 The Congress consents to the amendments of the

4 State of Maryland (chapter 252, 1995 Acts of the Mary5 land General Assembly and chapter 489, 1996 Laws of

6 Maryland), the amendments of the Commonwealth of Vir7 ginia (chapter 150, 1995 Acts of Assembly of Virginia),

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

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

10 Area Transit Regulation Compact. Such amendments are

11 substantially as follows:

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

13 ‘‘Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Zone

14 ‘‘3. There is hereby created the Washington Metro15 politan Area Transit Zone which shall embrace the Dis16 trict of Columbia, the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church

17 and Fairfax and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, and

18 Loudoun and political subdivisions of the Commonwealth

19 of Virginia located within those counties, and the counties

20 of Montgomery and Prince George’s in the State of Mary21 land and political subdivisions of the State of Maryland

22 located in said counties.’’.

23 (2) Subsection (a) of section 5 is amended to read

24 as follows:

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

26 six Directors consisting of two Directors for each signa-
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1 tory. For Virginia, the Directors shall be appointed by the

2 Northern Virginia Transportation Commission; for the

3 District of Columbia, by the Council of the District of Co4 lumbia; and for Maryland, by the Washington Suburban

5 Transit Commission. For Virginia and Maryland, the Di6 rectors shall be appointed from among the members of the

7 appointing body, except as otherwise provided herein, and

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

9 appointing body. A Director may be removed or suspended

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

11 from which he was appointed. The appointing authorities

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

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

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

15 the District of Columbia where only one Director and his

16 alternate are present, such alternate may act on behalf

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

18 pleasure of the appointing authority. In the event of a va19 cancy in the Office of Director or alternate, it shall be

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

21 (3) Subsection (a) of section 8 is amended to read

22 as follows:

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

24 least one Director or alternate appointed from each Signa25 tory, shall constitute a quorum and no action by the Board
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1 shall be effective unless a majority of the Board present

2 and voting, which majority shall include at least one Direc3 tor or alternate from each Signatory, concur therein; pro4 vided, however, that a plan of financing may be adopted

5 or a mass transit plan adopted, altered, revised or amend6 ed by the unanimous vote of the Directors representing

7 any two Signatories.’’.

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

9 as follows:

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

11 member of the Board to serve as liaison between the

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

13 To provide a framework for regional participation in the

14 planning process, the Board shall create technical commit15 tees concerned with planning and collection and analyses

16 of data relative to decision-making in the transportation

17 planning process and the Mayor and Council of the Dis18 trict of Columbia, the component governments of the

19 Northern Virginia Transportation District and the Wash20 ington Suburban Transit District shall appoint represent21 atives to such technical committees and otherwise cooper22 ate with the Board in the formulation of a mass transit

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

24 (5)(A) Paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of section 15

25 is amended to read as follows:
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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;’’.

5 (B) Paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of section 15 is

6 amended to read as follows:

7 ‘‘(3) the transportation agencies of the signato8 ries;’’.

9 (C) The last paragraph of section 15 is amended to

10 read as follows:

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

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

13 Board and shall be available for public inspection. Infor14 mation with respect thereto shall be released to the public.

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

16 successive weeks in one or more newspapers of general cir17 culation within the zone, a public hearing shall be held

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

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

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

21 The Board shall consider the evidence submitted and

22 statements and comments made at such meeting and may

23 make any changes in the proposed plan, amendment or

24 revision which it deems appropriate and such changes may

25 be made without further hearing.’’.
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1 (6) Subsection (a) of section 70 is amended to read

2 as follows:

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

4 year, an audit shall be made of the financial accounts of

5 the Authority. The audit shall be made by qualified cer6 tified public accountants selected by the Board, who shall

7 have no personal interest direct or indirect in the financial

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

9 The report of audit shall be prepared in accordance with

10 generally accepted auditing principles and shall be filed

11 with the Chairman and other officers as the Board shall

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

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

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

15 Maryland, to the Washington Suburban Transit Commis16 sion, to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission

17 and to the governing bodies of the political subdivisions

18 located within the Zone which are parties to commitments

19 for participation in the financing of the Authority and

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

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

22 ‘‘Contracting and Purchasing

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

24 and (f) of this section, and except in the case of procure25 ment procedures otherwise expressly authorized by stat-
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1 ute, the Authority in conducting a procurement of prop2 erty, services, or construction shall:

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

4 the use of competitive procedures in accordance with

5 the requirements of this Section; and

6 ‘‘(B) use the competitive procedure or combina7 tion of competitive procedures that is best suited

8 under the circumstances of the procurement.

9 ‘‘(2) In determining the competitive procedure appro10 priate under the circumstances, the Authority shall:

11 ‘‘(A) solicit sealed bids if:

12 ‘‘(i) time permits the solicitation, submis13 sion, and evaluation of sealed bids;

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

15 of price and other price-related factors;

16 ‘‘(iii) it is not necessary to conduct discus17 sions with the responding sources about their

18 bids; and

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

20 receiving more than one sealed bid; or

21 ‘‘(B) request competitive proposals if sealed

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

23 paragraph.

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

25 of property, services, or construction covered by this Sec-
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1 tion using competitive procedures but excluding a particu2 lar source in order to establish or maintain an alternative

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

4 construction if the Authority determines that excluding

5 the source would increase or maintain competition and

6 would likely result in reduced overall costs for procure7 ment of property, services, or construction.

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

9 competitive procedures if:

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

11 needed by the Authority is available from only one

12 responsible source and no other type of property,

13 services, or construction will satisfy the needs of the

14 Authority; or

15 ‘‘(2) the Authority’s need for the property, serv16 ices, or construction is of such an unusual and com17 pelling urgency that the Authority would be seriously

18 injured unless the Authority limits the number of

19 sources from which it solicits bids or proposals; or

20 ‘‘(3) the Authority determines that it is nec21 essary in the public interest to use procedures other

22 than competitive procedures in the particular pro23 curement; or
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1 ‘‘(4) the property or services can be obtained

2 through federal or other governmental sources at

3 reasonable prices.

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

5 of this section:

6 ‘‘(1) in the case of a contract for property, serv7 ices, or construction to be awarded on the basis of

8 acceptance of an unsolicited proposal, the property,

9 services, or construction shall be deemed to be avail10 able from only one responsible source if the source

11 has submitted an unsolicited proposal that dem12 onstrates a concept:

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

14 the case of a service, for which the source dem15 onstrates a unique capability to provide the

16 service; and

17 ‘‘(B) the substance of which is not other18 wise available to the Authority and does not re19 semble the substance of a pending competitive

20 procurement.

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

22 continued development or production of a major sys23 tem or highly specialized equipment or the continued

24 provision of highly specialized services, the property,

25 services, or construction may be deemed to be avail-
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1 able from only the original source and may be pro2 cured through procedures other than competitive

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

4 than the original source would result in:

5 ‘‘(A) substantial duplication of cost to the

6 Authority that is not expected to be recovered

7 through competition; or

8 ‘‘(B) unacceptable delays in fulfilling the

9 Authority’s needs.

10 ‘‘(e) If the Authority uses procedures other than com11 petitive procedures to procure property, services, or con12 struction under subsection (c)(2) of this section, the Au13 thority shall request offers from as many potential sources

14 as is practicable under the circumstances.

15 ‘‘(f)(1) To promote efficiency and economy in con16 tracting, the Authority may use simplified acquisition pro17 cedures for purchases of property, services and construc18 tion.

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

20 acquisition procedures may be used for purchases for an

21 amount that does not exceed the simplified acquisition

22 threshold adopted by the Federal Government.

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

24 above the simplified acquisition threshold may not be di25 vided into several purchases or contracts for lesser
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1 amounts in order to use the procedures under paragraph

2 (1) of this subsection.

3 ‘‘(4) In using simplified acquisition procedures, the

4 Authority shall promote competition to the maximum ex5 tent practicable.

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

7 to implement this Section. The policies and procedures

8 shall provide for publication of notice of procurements and

9 other actions designed to secure competition where com10 petitive procedures are used.

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

12 and all bids or proposals received in response to a solicita13 tion.’’.

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

15 ‘‘Jurisdiction of Courts

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

17 original jurisdiction, concurrent with the Courts of Mary18 land, Virginia and the District of Columbia, of all actions

19 brought by or against the Authority and to enforce sub20 poenas issued under this Title. Any such action initiated

21 in a State or District of Columbia Court shall be remov22 able to the appropriate United States District Court in

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

24 (28 U.S.C. 1446).’’.

25 (9) Section 84 is amended to read as follows:
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1 ‘‘Amendments and Supplements

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

3 implement the purposes thereof may be adopted by legisla4 tive action of any of the signatory parties concurred in

5 by all of the others. When one signatory adopts an amend6 ment or supplement to an existing section of the Compact.

7 that amendment shall not be immediately effective, and

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

9 in each jurisdiction until the amendment or supplement

10 is approved by the other signatories and is consented to

11 by Congress.’’.

Passed the House of Representatives September 24,

1996.

Attest: ROBIN H. CARLE,

Clerk.