II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4750 

To ensure efficiency and fairness in Federal subcontracting, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 23, 2024 

Mr. CASEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To ensure efficiency and fairness in Federal subcontracting, 

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 ‘‘Ensuring Efficiency 

5 and Fairness in Federal Subcontracting Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT9 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com10 mittees’’ means— 


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1 (A) the Committee on Homeland Security 

2 and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 

3 (B) the Committee on Oversight and Ac4 countability of the House of Representatives. 

5 (2) EXECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘executive 

6 agency’’ has the meaning given the term in section 

7 133 of title 41, United States Code. 

8 SEC. 3. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT ON SMALL BUSI9 NESS UTILIZATION IN FEDERAL CON10 TRACTING. 

11 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact12 ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 

13 States shall submit to the appropriate congressional com14 mittees the results of a study on how small business utili15 zation by prime contractors can be better monitored on 

16 the largest and longest Federal contracts, including In17 definite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts 

18 and Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), 

19 with any further relevant contract types to be determined 

20 by the Comptroller General. 

21 SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO NOTIFY SUBCONTRACTORS OF 

22 CONTRACT STATUS. 

23 Not later than 18 months after the date of the enact24 ment of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory 

25 Council shall revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation— 


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1 (1) to require prime contractors on Federal 

2 contracts to provide to a subcontractor named in a 

3 subcontracting plan of the prime contractor, within 

4 30 days of a request from such subcontractor, notifi5 cation of the status of the contract, including infor6 mation such as whether the prime contractor has re7 ceived any task orders or executed other work under 

8 the contract; 

9 (2) to provide a means by which a subcon10 tractor who has made a request described in para11 graph (1) and not received a response within 30 

12 days to report the request and delayed response to 

13 the contracting officer; 

14 (3) to require a contracting officer receiving a 

15 notification described in paragraph (2) to document 

16 the incident and consider the information in the 

17 small business subcontracting factor of the perform18 ance assessment for the prime contractor; and 

19 (4) to require offerors for a task or delivery 

20 order on a contract for which a subcontracting plan 

21 is required to provide information in the proposal 

22 about how the offeror’s proposed small business uti23 lization for the task or delivery order aligns with the 

24 overall contract’s small business subcontracting plan. 


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1 SEC. 5. STUDY ON STRENGTHENING ENFORCEMENT PROVI2 SIONS DESIGNED TO PROTECT SUBCONTRAC3 TORS. 

4 The Attorney General, in consultation with the Ad5 ministrator of General Services, the Administrator of the 

6 Small Business Administration, and the Administrator for 

7 Federal Procurement Policy, shall conduct a study on 

8 ways to strengthen enforcement mechanisms for compli9 ance with subcontracting plans in accordance with section 

10 19.705–7 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations, includ11 ing exploring the need for an alternative complaint route 

12 for subcontractors that have experienced serious issues as 

13 a result of the prime contractor or a subcontractor at any 

14 tier under the contract failing to make a good faith effort, 

15 as outlined in such section and section 125.3 of title 13, 

16 Code of Federal Regulations. 

17 SEC. 6. COMPTROLLER GENERAL STUDY ON UTILIZATION 

18 OF CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE ASSESS19 MENT REPORTING SYSTEM (CPARS) DATA TO 

20 ASSESS RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PRIME 

21 AND SUBCONTRACTORS. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

23 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

24 of the United States shall submit to the appropriate con25 gressional committees the results of a study on how 


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1 CPARS could be utilized as a means of gauging relation2 ships between prime and subcontractors. 

3 (b) ELEMENTS.—The study required under sub4 section (a) shall focus on the following matters: 

5 (1) An examination of how adverse experiences 

6 of subcontractors are or are not translated into 

7 lower CPARS scores. 

8 (2) An assessment of whether lower CPARS 

9 scores impact the ability of prime contractors to se10 cure Federal contracts and options in source selec11 tion, including an examination of the weighting of 

12 the subcontracting score relative to other compo13 nents of the CPARS. 

14 (3) An assessment of whether the timing of 

15 scoring within contracts is such that it incentivizes 

16 the best possible small business utilization and inter17 action between prime and subcontractors. 

18 SEC. 7. PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO MEET SMALL BUSI19 NESS UTILIZATION GOALS. 

20 Not later than 18 months after the date of the enact21 ment of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory 

22 Council shall revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation to 

23 allow agencies to incorporate into their incentive contracts 

24 with prime contractors a condition that— 


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1 (1) if the rate of small business utilization for 

2 the contract is less than 50 percent of the utilization 

3 level prescribed in the subcontracting plan, the 

4 prime contractor shall not be eligible to receive a 

5 performance-based incentive fee with respect to the 

6 contract; and 

7 (2) if the rate of small business utilization at 

8 any stage of an incentive contract is less than 75 

9 percent of the utilization level prescribed for such 

10 stage in the subcontracting plan, the prime con11 tractor may receive a warning letter from the con12 tracting officer for the contract noting the shortfall 

13 and potential loss of incentive fees. 

14 SEC. 8. OUTREACH TO SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTORS. 

15 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact16 ment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Manage17 ment and Budget shall issue guidance to the heads of ex18 ecutive agencies on measures they should take to improve 

19 small business outreach and improve awareness of subcon20 tracting opportunities, including webinars, online engage21 ments, and other innovative methods of outreach, and 

22 hosting at least two general outreach sessions per year for 

23 potential small business contractors and one outreach ses24 sion per year for each of the following groups: 


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1 (1) Small business concerns owned and con2 trolled by veterans and small business concerns 

3 owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans 

4 (as those terms are defined in section 3(q) of the 

5 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(q))). 

6 (2) Qualified HUBZone small business concerns 

7 (as defined in section 3(p) of such Act (15 U.S.C. 

8 632(p))). 

9 (3) Socially and economically disadvantaged 

10 small business concerns (as defined in section 

11 8(a)(4)(A) of such Act (15 U.S.C. 637(a)(4)(A))). 

12 (4) Small business concerns owned and con13 trolled by women (as defined in section 3(n) of such 

14 Act (15 U.S.C. 632(n))). 

15 SEC. 9. IMPROVEMENTS TO THE ELECTRONIC SUBCON16 TRACTING REPORTING SYSTEM. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 

18 date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 

19 General Services shall develop and include as part of the 

20 General Services Administration’s strategic information 

21 resources management plan required under section 

22 3506(b)(2) of title 44, United States Code, a plan to mod23 ernize the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System 

24 (eSRS). 


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1 (b) ELEMENTS.—The modernization plan required 

2 under subsection (a) shall include— 

3 (1) steps that the General Services Administra4 tion intends to make toward updating and modern5 izing eSRS; 

6 (2) an assessment of the capacity of the agency 

7 to operate and maintain an updated system; 

8 (3) the estimated cost and sources of funding 

9 required to execute this plan; and 

10 (4) a description of the additional resources and 

11 staffing that is necessary to carrying out the plan. 

12 (c) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 30 

13 days after the date on which the General Services Admin14 istration’s strategic information resources management 

15 plan is updated pursuant to subsection (a), the Adminis16 trator of General Services shall submit the plan to mod17 ernize eSRS described in such subsection. 

Æ 


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