I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2767

To improve Federal agency oversight of contracts and assistance and to 

strengthen accountability of the governmentwide debarment and suspension system. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 17, 2003

Mrs. MALONEY (for herself, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr. 

GARY G. MILLER of California, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. OWENS, and Mr. 

KUCINICH) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform 

A BILL

To improve Federal agency oversight of contracts and assistance and to strengthen accountability of the governmentwide debarment and suspension system.

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 ‘‘Contractors Account5 ability Act of 2003’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 
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1 (1) NEED FOR DATABASE.—(A) By spending 

2 over $215,000,000,000 a year on procurement and 

3 nonprocurement awards for goods and services, the 

4 Federal Government is the largest consumer in the 

5 world. 

6 (B) It is in the best interest of the Federal 

7 Government and its taxpayers to award contract and 

8 assistance to entities that are responsible and have 

9 a suitable record of integrity and business ethics. 

10 (C) There is no centralized, comprehensive 

11 database on judicial actions, consent decrees, admin12 istrative agreements, terminations, or settlements 

13 with respect to potential Federal contractors or as14 sistance participants. 

15 (D) Federal officials do not have the resources 

16 necessary to assemble such information for each 

17 Federal procurement award. 

18 (E) The lack of this information compromises 

19 the Federal Government’s ability to safeguard the 

20 integrity of the Federal procurement and assistance 

21 activities. 

22 (F) It is in the best business interests of the 

23 Federal Government to have all information possible 

24 regarding potential contractors’ and assistance par25 ticipants’ performance and integrity records to as-
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1 sure that persons with which the Government does 

2 business are presently responsible. 

3 (2) REALITY OF DEBARMENTS AND SUSPEN4 SIONS OF TOP 43 FEDERAL CONTRACTORS.—Since 

5 1990—

6 (A) of the top 43 Federal contractors 

7 based on total contract dollars received—

8 (i) 16 have a total of 28 criminal con9 victions; and 

10 (ii) 4 of the top ten have at least 2 

11 criminal convictions; 

12 (B) such 43 contractors have paid a total 

13 of $3,400,000,000 in fines, penalties, restitu14 tion, settlements, and clean-up costs under the 

15 Superfund program; and 

16 (C) despite such fines and criminal convic17 tions, only one of the 43 contractors has been 

18 debarred or suspended from contracting with 

19 the Federal Government, for only 5 days. 

20 (3) NEED FOR DATABASE NOT FULFILLED.—

21 (A) There is no centralized listing of crimi22 nal or civil indictments, convictions, fines, pen23 alties, restitution, and settlement assessments 

24 relating to contractors or assistance partici25 pants. 
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1 (B) Potential Federal contractors or assist2 ance participants are not required to disclose all 

3 relevant criminal, civil, or administrative rulings 

4 or resolutions during the Federal procurement 

5 award process. 

6 (C) Without such a database or disclosure, 

7 Federal award officials and debarment officials 

8 lack important information relevant to present 

9 responsibility. 

10 SEC. 3. DATABASE FOR FEDERAL DEBARMENT OFFICIALS 

11 AND CONTRACTING OFFICERS. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of General 

13 Services shall establish and maintain a database of infor14 mation regarding integrity and performance of Federal 

15 contracts and assistance recipients for use by Federal pro16 curement award officials and Federal officials having au17 thority to debar or suspend persons from Federal con18 tracts or assistance. 

19 (b) INFORMATION INCLUDED.—The database—

20 (1) shall consist of information regarding judi21 cial and administrative proceedings initiated or con22 cluded by the Federal Government and State govern23 ments against Federal contractors or assistance re24 cipients; and 
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1 (2) shall include with respect to each entity 

2 awarded a Federal contract or assistance—

3 (A) information regarding all proceedings 

4 referred to in paragraph (1) against that person 

5 in at least the most recent 5-year period; 

6 (B) with respect to each proceeding—

7 (i) a brief description of the pro8 ceeding; and 

9 (ii) any amount paid by the person to 

10 the Federal Government or a State govern11 ment; 

12 (C) all Federal contracts and assistance 

13 awarded to the person that were terminated in 

14 such period due to default; 

15 (D) all Federal debarments and suspen16 sions of the person in that period; and 

17 (E) all Federal suspension and debarment 

18 or administrative agreements signed with such 

19 person in that period. 

20 (c) INPUT OF DATA.—The Administrator shall design 

21 and maintain the database in a manner that allows the 

22 appropriate officials of each Federal agency to directly 

23 input and update in the database information relating to

24 actions it has taken with regard to contractors or assist25 ance recipients. 
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1 (d) AVAILABILITY.—The Administrator shall make 

2 the database available to all Federal agencies and to the 

3 public in accordance with section 552 of title 5, United 

4 States Code, popularly known as the Freedom of Informa5 tion Act. 

6 SEC. 4. SUSPENSION AND DEBARMENT PRESUMPTION FOR 

7 REPEAT VIOLATORS AND POOR PER8 FORMERS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—Federal agency suspension and 

10 debarment regulations shall be amended by no later than 

11 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act to 

12 provide that an entity shall be presumed nonresponsible 

13 with respect to award of a Federal contract or assistance 

14 if the entity has rendered against it twice within any 3-

15 year period a judgment or conviction for the same offense, 

16 or similar offenses, if each conviction constitutes a cause 

17 for debarment under the governmentwide debarment sys18 tem. 

19 (b) REBUTTAL.—The presumption under subsection 

20 (a) shall be rebutted only if the entity demonstrates, by 

21 clear and convincing evidence, that the entity is presently 

22 responsible and has corrected the conditions that gave rise 

23 to the violations. 

24 (c) REPEAT VIOLATIONS.—An agency suspending of25 ficial may deem evidence of repeat violations under sub-
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1 section (a) as sufficient reason to find that immediate ac2 tion is necessary to suspend an entity under the regula3 tions until the entity fulfills the requirements of subsection 

4 (b). 

5 SEC. 5. DISCLOSURE IN APPLICATIONS. 

6 Federal regulations shall be amended by no later than 

7 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act to 

8 require that in applying for any Federal contract or assist9 ance, whether by submission of a proposal, any solicita10 tion, bid, or other offer, an entity shall disclose in writ11 ing—

12 (1) all Federal or State debarments or suspen13 sions of the entity from contracts or assistance in 

14 the 5-year period preceding the date of submission 

15 of the application; 

16 (2) all judicial and administrative proceedings 

17 against the entity by the Federal Government or any 

18 State that occurred in the 5-year period preceding 

19 the date of the application; and 

20 (3) all administrative agreements with respect 

21 to Federal contracts or assistance that the entity is 

22 implementing to avoid suspension or debarment 

23 within 5 years of the date of the submission of the 

24 application. 
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1 SEC. 6. ROLE OF INTERAGENCY COMMITTEE. 

2 The Interagency Committee on Debarment and Sus3 pension shall—

4 (1) resolve issues regarding which of several 

5 Federal agencies is the lead agency having responsi6 bility to initiate suspension or debarment pro7 ceedings; 

8 (2) coordinate actions among interested agen9 cies with respect to such action; 

10 (3) encourage and assist Federal agencies in 

11 entering into cooperative efforts to pool resources 

12 and achieve operational efficiencies in the govern13 mentwide suspension and debarment system; 

14 (4) recommend to the Office of Management 

15 and Budget changes to Government debarment and 

16 suspension system and its rules, if such rec17 ommendations are approved by a majority of the 

18 Interagency Committee; 

19 (5) authorize the Office of Management and 

20 Budget to issue guidelines that implement those rec21 ommendations; 

22 (6) authorize the chair of the Committee to es23 tablish subcommittees as appropriate to best enable 

24 the Interagency Committee to carry out its func25 tions; and 
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1 (7) submit to the Congress an annual report 

2 on—

3 (A) the progress and efforts to improve the 

4 suspension and debarment system; 

5 (B) member agencies’ active participation 

6 in the committee’s work; and 

7 (C) a summary of each agency’s activities 

8 and accomplishments in the governmentwide de9 barment system. 

10 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF INDEPENDENT AGENCIES. 

11 Any agency, commission, or organization of the Fed12 eral Government to which Executive Order 12549 does not 

13 apply is authorized to participate in the governmentwide 

14 suspension and debarment system and may recognize the 

15 suspension or debarment issued by an executive branch 

16 agency in its own procurement or assistance activities. 

17 SEC. 8. USE OF PAYMENTS UNDER ADMINISTRATIVE 

18 AGREEMENTS. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—A Federal agency may—

20 (1) retain amounts described in subsection (b); 

21 and 

22 (2) use those amounts solely—

23 (A) to administer, review, or oversee com24 pliance with suspension or debarment adminis25 trative agreements; and 
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1 (B) for costs associated with establishing 

2 and maintaining the database under section 3, 

3 including for input and update of information 

4 in the database. 

5 (b) AMOUNTS DESCRIBED.—The amounts referred to 

6 in subsection (a) are amounts received by the agency as 

7 payment made by any Federal contractor or assistance 

8 participant pursuant to an administrative agreement with 

9 respect to a Federal contract or assistance activity. 

10 (c) RESTRICTION.—Amounts retained under sub11 section (a)(1) may not be used for agency administration 

12 or expenses not described in subsection (a)(2). 

13 SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS. 

14 In this Act: 

15 (1) INTERAGENCY COMMITTEE.—The term 

16 ‘‘Interagency Committee on Debarment and Suspen17 sion’’ means such committee constituted under sec18 tions 4 and 5 and of Executive Order 12549. 

19 (2) ASSISTANCE.—The term ‘‘assistance’’ 

20 means Federal grants, cooperative agreements, 

21 loans, loan guarantees, and other benefits included 

22 as covered transactions under the governmentwide 

23 nonprocurement suspension and debarment rules. 
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1 (3) CONTRACT.—The term ‘‘contract’’ means 

2 those direct procurement transactions covered by 

3 subpart 9.4 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

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