I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1324

To require Federal agencies to follow certain procedures with respect to

the bundling of procurement contract requirements, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 29, 2001

Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ (for herself, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr.

BOEHNER, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. HOBSON, Mr. UDALL of

New Mexico, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mrs. JONES

of Ohio, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs.

NAPOLITANO, Mr. PHELPS, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr.

PASCRELL, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. BAIRD, and Mr. WYNN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small

Business, and in addition to the Committee on Government Reform, for

a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To require Federal agencies to follow certain procedures with

respect to the bundling of procurement contract requirements, 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 ‘‘Small Business Con5 tract Equity Act of 2001’’.
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1 SEC. 2. PROCEDURES FOR BUNDLING CONTRACTS.

2 (a) PROCEDURES FOR BUNDLING OF CONTRACTS.—

3 Notwithstanding any other law, the following procedures

4 shall apply to a solicitation that is issued by an executive

5 department or agency for the procurement of goods or

6 services and that the Administrator of the Small Business

7 Administration determines would result in the displace8 ment of any small-business concern:

9 (1) SUBMISSION OF DRAFT SOLICITATION.—

10 The head of the department or agency shall forward,

11 at least 20 days prior to the publication of any solic12 itation for goods or services in Commerce Business

13 Daily (or its electronic successor), a draft of such

14 solicitation to the Administrator of the Small Busi15 ness Administration, for determination by the Ad16 ministrator whether the draft solicitation would re17 sult in a bundled contract.

18 (2) DETERMINATION.—Not later than 10 days

19 after the date of receipt of the draft solicitation, the

20 Administrator shall make the determination de21 scribed in paragraph (1) and submit such deter22 mination to the head of the department or agency.

23 If the Administrator concludes that the draft solici24 tation would result in a bundled contract, the head

25 of the department or agency may not publish the so26 licitation until the department or agency head un-
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1 dertakes market research for the proposed solicita2 tion as described in section 15(e) of the Small Busi3 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)) and the regulations pro4 mulgated thereunder on December 27, 1999.

5 (3) STUDY.—Not later than 45 days after the

6 date that the Administrator has made the deter7 mination under paragraph (2), the head of the de8 partment or agency shall submit to the Adminis9 trator a study to support the proposed bundled con10 tract which demonstrates measurable savings as set

11 forth in the regulations implementing the Small

12 Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 (Public Law

13 105–135; 111 Stat. 2592) (including the amend14 ments made by that Act), and that the quality of the

15 goods or services to be procured under the draft so16 licitation are equal in quality to the goods or services

17 currently obtained by the head of the department or

18 agency.

19 (4) REVIEW OF STUDY.—Not later than 10

20 days after the submission of the study, the Adminis21 trator shall determine whether the study meets the

22 standards set forth in the Small Business Reauthor23 ization Act of 1997 (including the amendments

24 made by that Act) and the regulations promulgated

25 thereunder on December 27, 1999. The Adminis-
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1 trator shall specify in writing any deficiencies in the

2 study and proposed changes to the draft solicitation

3 (including, but not limited to, the reduction in size

4 or scope of the draft solicitation) so as to comply

5 with the requirements in such Act and regulations.

6 If the head of the agency does not concur in a deter7 mination of the Administrator under this paragraph,

8 the head of the agency may appeal the determina9 tion to the Director of the Office of Management

10 and Budget, who shall either grant or deny the ap11 peal within 5 days. Any determination by the Direc12 tor shall be final. The Director may delegate his du13 ties set forth in this paragraph to a subordinate offi14 cial within the Office of Management and Budget

15 appointed by the President with the advice and con16 sent of the Senate.

17 (5) PUBLICATION OF SOLICITATION.—If the

18 Administrator determines that the study meets the

19 standards set forth in the Small Business Reauthor20 ization Act of 1997 and the regulations promulgated

21 thereunder, and that the goals described in section

22 15(g)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.

23 644(g)(2)) for the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year

24 in which the draft solicitation was forwarded to the

25 Administrator under paragraph (1) have been met,
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1 the head of the department or agency may publish

2 the solicitation in Commerce Business Daily (or its

3 electronic successor).

4 (6) REVISION OF SOLICITATION.—If the Admin5 istrator determines that the study does not meet

6 such standards, the head of the department or agen7 cy shall revise the solicitation and perform a new

8 study pursuant to the procedures set forth in para9 graphs (1) through (3).

10 (b) WAIVER.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The requirements of sub12 section (a) may be waived by the Administrator if

13 the Administrator determines that an unusual or un14 expected exigency justifies a waiver.

15 (2) APPEAL.—The head of an agency may ap16 peal any waiver request to the Director of the Office

17 of Management and Budget, who shall either grant

18 or deny the appeal within 5 days. Any determination

19 by the Director shall be final. The Director may del20 egate the duties set forth in this paragraph to a sub21 ordinate official within the Office of Management

22 and Budget appointed by the President with the ad23 vice and consent of the Senate.

24 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the term—
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1 (1) ‘‘bundled contract’’ means any contract, ir2 respective of benefit or dollar value, that displaces

3 two or more small-business concerns; and

4 (2) ‘‘small-business concern’’ has the meaning

5 given that term in section 3(a) of the Small Busi6 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)).

7 (d) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator shall promul8 gate regulations to implement this section according to the

9 following procedures:

10 (1) Not later than 30 days after the date of en11 actment of this Act, the Administrator shall publish,

12 for notice and comment, proposed rules to imple13 ment this section.

14 (2) The Administrator shall receive comments

15 on the proposed rules for 45 days. At the close of

16 the comment period, the Administrator shall consult

17 with the department or agency head on the promul18 gation of final rules.

19 (3) If no final rule has been published within

20 120 days after the effective date of this Act, the reg21 ulations published in proposed form pursuant to

22 paragraph (1) shall become final.
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1 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BUNDLING OF CON2 TRACT REQUIREMENTS.

3 Section 3(o) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.

4 632(o)) is amended—

5 (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, regardless

6 of the terminology that the contracting agency uses

7 to refer to such a contract and regardless of whether

8 such agency has conducted a study of the effects of

9 the solicitation for the contract on civilian or mili10 tary personnel of the United States’’ before the pe11 riod at the end; and

12 (2) in paragraph (2)—

13 (A) by striking ‘‘The term’’ and inserting

14 ‘‘Regardless of the terminology that the con15 tracting agency uses to refer to such a consoli16 dation, the term’’; and

17 (B) by inserting ‘‘or multiple contracts, or

18 the creation of any new procurement require19 ment that permits such consolidation,’’ after

20 ‘‘solicitation of offers for a single contract’’.

21 SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT RE22 QUIREMENTS BY AGENCIES THAT FAIL TO

23 MEET CERTAIN SMALL BUSINESS PROCURE24 MENT PARTICIPATION GOALS.

25 (a) PROHIBITION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT RE26 QUIREMENTS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 15(e) of the Small

2 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)) is amended by add3 ing at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(5) RESTRICTION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT

5 REQUIREMENTS.—

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If a report submitted

7 under subsection (h)(2) includes a finding that

8 an agency failed, in any fiscal year covered by

9 the report, to attain any goal described in sub10 paragraph (B), the agency may not award a

11 contract that is determined by the Adminis12 trator to be a bundled contract under section 2

13 or solicit offers for a bundled contract for the

14 duration of the fiscal year beginning on the

15 first October 1 after the submission of the re16 port.

17 ‘‘(B) GOALS TO BE MET.—For the pur18 poses of subparagraph (A), an agency shall be

19 required to meet the each goal described in sub20 section (g)(2) that relates to any of the fol21 lowing:

22 ‘‘(i) small business concerns generally;

23 ‘‘(ii) small business concerns owned

24 and controlled by socially and economically

25 disadvantaged individuals; and
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1 ‘‘(iii) small business concerns owned

2 and controlled by women.’’.

3 (2) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by

4 paragraph (1) shall apply only to—

5 (A) solicitations of offers to contract issued

6 on or after October 1, 2001; and

7 (B) contracts awarded pursuant to such

8 solicitations.

9 (b) DEADLINES RELATING TO DETERMINATION OF

10 GOAL ATTAINMENT.—Section 15(h) of the Small Business

11 Act (15 U.S.C. 644(h)) is amended—

12 (1) in paragraph (2) in the first sentence, by

13 inserting ‘‘by not later than December 31 of each

14 year’’ before the period at the end; and

15 (2) by adding at the end the following:

16 ‘‘(4) By not later than September 15 of each year,

17 the Administrator of General Services shall transmit to

18 the Administration a preliminary report, for the period be19 ginning on October 1 and ending on August 31 of the pre20 vious year, containing data and information, obtained

21 from the Federal Procurement Data System, dem22 onstrating the extent to which each agency met each goal

23 set forth in subsection (g)(2). Not later than October 15

24 of each year, the Administrator of General Services shall
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1 transmit to the Administration a final report containing

2 such data for the previous year.’’.

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