I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2008 

To amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit inserting politics into 

the Federal acquisition process by prohibiting the submission of political 

contribution information as a condition of receiving a Federal contract. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 26, 2011 

Mr. ISSA (for himself, Mr. COLE, Mr. GRAVES of Missouri, Mr. AMASH, Mr. 

GOWDY, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. ROSS of Florida, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. 

WALBERG, and Mr. KELLY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

To amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit inserting 

politics into the Federal acquisition process by prohibiting the submission of political contribution information 

as a condition of receiving a Federal contract. 

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 ‘‘Keeping Politics Out 

5 of Federal Contracting Act of 2011’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN USES OF POLITICAL IN2 FORMATION. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 41, United 

4 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing new section: 

6 ‘‘§ 4712. Prohibition on certain uses of political infor7 mation 

8 ‘‘(a) PROHIBITION ON REQUIRING SUBMISSION OF

9 POLITICAL INFORMATION.—The head of an executive 

10 agency may not require a contractor to submit political 

11 information related to the contractor or a subcontractor 

12 at any tier, or any partner, officer, director, or employee 

13 of the contractor or subcontractor— 

14 ‘‘(1) as part of a solicitation, request for bid, 

15 request for proposal, or any other form of commu16 nication designed to solicit offers in connection with 

17 the award of a contract for procurement of property 

18 or services; 

19 ‘‘(2) during the course of contract performance 

20 as part of the process associated with modifying a 

21 contract or exercising a contract option; or 

22 ‘‘(3) any time prior to contract completion and 

23 final contract closeout. 

24 ‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON USE OF POLITICAL INFORMA25 TION.—The head of an executive agency may not use po26 litical information, whether obtained from a contractor or 


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1 prospective contractor or from an independent public or 

2 nonpublic source, as a factor or consideration in the source 

3 selection process used to award a competitive or non-com4 petitive contract at any value or in making any decision 

5 associated with the modification of a contract or the exer6 cise of a contract option. 

7 ‘‘(c) PROHIBITION ON INCLUSION OF POLITICAL IN8 FORMATION IN CONTRACTING DATABASES.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under 

10 paragraph (2), an executive agency may not include 

11 political information in the contracting past per12 formance database or any database designed to pro13 vide information to a contracting officer for pur14 poses of supporting the responsibility determination 

15 by such officer. 

16 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN

17 VIOLATIONS.— 

18 ‘‘(A) EXCEPTION.—Data required as of 

19 the date of the enactment of the Keeping Poli20 tics Out of Federal Contracting Act of 2011 to 

21 be included in the database maintained under 

22 section 2313 of this title are not subject to the 

23 prohibition under paragraph (1). 

24 ‘‘(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Notwith25 standing subparagraph (A), this paragraph 


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1 shall not be construed as authorizing the inclu2 sion of political information pursuant to sub3 section (c)(6) of such section. 

4 ‘‘(d) APPLICABILITY.—The prohibitions under this 

5 section apply to the procurement of commercial items, the 

6 procurement of commercial off-the-shelf items, and the 

7 non-commercial procurement of supplies, property, serv8 ices, and manufactured items, irrespective of contract ve9 hicle, including contracts, purchase orders, task or deliver 

10 orders under indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity con11 tracts, blanket purchase agreements, and basic ordering 

12 agreements. 

13 ‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec14 tion shall be construed as waiving, superseding, restrict15 ing, or limiting the application of the Federal Election 

16 Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) or pre17 venting Federal regulatory or law enforcement agencies 

18 from collecting or receiving information authorized by law. 

19 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

20 ‘‘(1) ACQUISITION.—The term ‘acquisition’ has 

21 the meaning given the term in section 131 of this 

22 title. 

23 ‘‘(2) CONTRACTOR.—The term ‘contractor’ in24 cludes contractors, bidders, and offerors, and indi25 viduals and legal entities who would reasonably be 


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1 expected to submit offers or bids for Federal Gov2 ernment contracts. 

3 ‘‘(3) EXECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘executive 

4 agency’ has the meaning given the term in section 

5 133 of this title. 

6 ‘‘(4) POLITICAL INFORMATION.—The term ‘po7 litical information’ means information relating to po8 litical spending, including any payment consisting of 

9 a contribution, expenditure, independent expendi10 ture, or disbursement for an electioneering commu11 nication that is made by the contractor, any of its 

12 partners, officers, directors or employees, or any of 

13 its affiliates or subsidiaries to a candidate or on be14 half of a candidate for election for Federal office, to 

15 a political committee, to a political party, to a third16 party entity with the intention or reasonable expec17 tation that it would use the payment to make inde18 pendent expenditures or electioneering communica19 tions, or that is otherwise made with respect to any 

20 election for Federal office, party affiliation, and vot21 ing history. Each of the terms ‘contribution’, ‘ex22 penditure’, ‘independent expenditure’, ‘candidate’, 

23 ‘election’, ‘electioneering communication’, and ‘Fed24 eral office’ has the meaning given the term in the 


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1 Federal Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et 

2 seq.).’’. 

3 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

4 at the beginning of chapter 47 of title 41, United States 

5 Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 

6 section 4711 the following new item: 

‘‘4712. Prohibition on Certain Uses of Political Information.’’ 

Æ 


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