I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4999 

To ensure the effective and appropriate use of the Lowest Price Technically 

Acceptable source selection process. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 20, 2016 

Mr. BEYER (for himself and Mr. WITTMAN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To ensure the effective and appropriate use of the Lowest 

Price Technically Acceptable source selection process. 

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 ‘‘Promoting Value 

5 Based Defense Procurement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

7 It shall be the policy of the Department of Defense 

8 to avoid using Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source 

9 selection criteria in inappropriate circumstances that poVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:20 Apr 29, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4999.IH H4999

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1 tentially deny the Department the benefits of cost and 

2 technical tradeoffs in the source selection process. 

3 SEC. 3. REVISION OF DEFENSE FEDERAL ACQUISITION 

4 REGULATION SUPPLEMENT. 

5 For new solicitations issued on or after the date that 

6 is 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

7 Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source selection cri8 teria shall be used only in situations in which— 

9 (1) the Department of Defense is able to com10 prehensively and clearly describe the minimum re11 quirements expressed in terms of performance objec12 tives, measures, and standards that will be used to 

13 determine acceptability of offers; 

14 (2) the Department of Defense would realize 

15 no, or minimal, value from a contract proposal ex16 ceeding the minimum technical or performance re17 quirements set forth in the Request for Proposal; 

18 (3) the proposed technical approaches will re19 quire no, or minimal, subjective judgment by the 

20 source selection authority as to the desirability of 

21 one offeror’s proposal versus a competing proposal; 

22 (4) a review of technical proposals of offerors 

23 other than the lowest bidder would result in no, or 

24 minimal, benefit to the Department; and 


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1 (5) the contracting officer has included a jus2 tification for the use of a Lowest Price Technically 

3 Acceptable evaluation methodology in the contract 

4 file, if the contract to be awarded is predominately 

5 for the acquisition of information technology serv6 ices, systems engineering and technical assistance 

7 services, or other knowledge-based professional serv8 ices. 

9 SEC. 4. AVOIDANCE OF USE OF LOWEST PRICE TECH10 NICALLY ACCEPTABLE SOURCE SELECTION 

11 CRITERIA IN PROCUREMENTS OF INFORMA12 TION TECHNOLOGY AND AUDITING. 

13 To the maximum extent practicable, the use of Low14 est Price Technically Acceptable source selection criteria 

15 shall be avoided when the procurement is predominately 

16 for the acquisition of information technology services, sys17 tems engineering and technical assistance services, audit 

18 or audit readiness services, or other knowledge-based pro19 fessional services. 

20 SEC. 5. REPORTING. 

21 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact22 ment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 3 years, the 

23 Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional de24 fense committees a report on the number of instances in 

25 which Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source selecVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:20 Apr 29, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4999.IH H4999

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1 tion criteria is used, including an explanation of how the 

2 criteria in section 2 was considered when making a deter3 mination to use Lowest Price Technically Acceptable 

4 source selection criteria. 

Æ 


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