II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 958 

To amend the Small Business Act to provide for team and joint venture 

offers for certain contracts. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 15, 2015 

Mr. ENZI (for himself and Mr. CASEY) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

A BILL 

To amend the Small Business Act to provide for team and 

joint venture offers for certain contracts. 

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 Fair5 ness Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. JOINT VENTURING AND TEAMING. 

7 (a) JOINT VENTURE OFFERS FOR BUNDLED OR

8 CONSOLIDATED CONTRACTS.—Section 15(e)(4) of the 

9 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)(4)) is amended to 

10 read as follows: 


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1 ‘‘(4) CONTRACT TEAMING.— 

2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a solici3 tation of offers for a bundled or consolidated 

4 contract that is issued by the head of an agen5 cy, a small business concern may submit an 

6 offer that provides for use of a particular team 

7 of subcontractors or a joint venture of small 

8 business concerns for the performance of the 

9 contract. 

10 ‘‘(B) EVALUATION OF OFFERS.—The head 

11 of an agency shall evaluate the offer of a team 

12 or a joint venture of small business concerns 

13 submitted under subparagraph (A) in the same 

14 manner as other offers, with due consideration 

15 to the capabilities of all of the proposed sub16 contractors or members of the joint venture. 

17 ‘‘(i) TEAMS.—When evaluating an 

18 offer of a small business prime contractor 

19 that includes a proposed team of sub20 contractors, the head of the agency shall 

21 consider the capabilities and past perform22 ance of each first tier subcontractor that is 

23 part of the team as the capabilities and 

24 past performance of the team. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) JOINT VENTURES.—When evalu2 ating an offer of a joint venture of small 

3 business concerns, if the joint venture does 

4 not have sufficient capabilities or past per5 formance to be considered for award of a 

6 contract opportunity, the head of the agen7 cy shall consider the capabilities and past 

8 performance of each member of the joint 

9 venture as the capabilities and past per10 formance of the joint venture. 

11 ‘‘(C) STATUS AS A SMALL BUSINESS CON12 CERN.—Participation of a small business con13 cern in a team or a joint venture under this 

14 paragraph shall not affect the status of that 

15 concern as a small business concern with re16 spect to the performance of a contract described 

17 in subparagraph (A).’’. 

18 (b) TEAM AND JOINT VENTURE OFFERS FOR MUL19 TIPLE AWARD CONTRACTS.—Section 15(q)(1) of the 

20 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(q)(1)) is amended— 

21 (1) in the heading, by inserting ‘‘AND JOINT

22 VENTURE’’ before ‘‘REQUIREMENTS’’; 

23 (2) by striking ‘‘Each Federal agency’’ and in24 serting the following: 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each Federal agen2 cy’’; and 

3 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘(B) TEAMS.—When evaluating an offer of 

5 a small business prime contractor that includes 

6 a proposed team of subcontractors for any mul7 tiple award contract above the substantial bun8 dling threshold of the Federal agency, the head 

9 of the Federal agency shall consider the capa10 bilities and past performance of each first tier 

11 subcontractor that is part of the team as the 

12 capabilities and past performance of the offeror. 

13 ‘‘(C) JOINT VENTURES.—When evaluating 

14 an offer of a joint venture of small business 

15 concerns for any multiple award contract above 

16 the substantial bundling threshold of the Fed17 eral agency, if the joint venture does not have 

18 sufficient capabilities or past performance to be 

19 considered for award of a contract opportunity, 

20 the head of the Federal agency shall consider 

21 the capabilities and past performance of each 

22 member of the joint venture as the capabilities 

23 and past performance of the joint venture. 

24 ‘‘(D) USE OF SMALL BUSINESS TEAMS OR

25 JOINT VENTURES.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—For contracts 

2 awarded under section 8(a), 8(m), 15(a), 

3 15(j), 31, or 36 to a team of small busi4 ness prime contractors and subcontractors 

5 or a joint venture of small business con6 cerns, the contracting officer shall certify 

7 annually to the Administration, for each 

8 year the contract is in effect, that each 

9 small business concern member of the 

10 team or joint venture has the same status 

11 of a small business concern, small business 

12 concern owned and controlled by service13 disabled veterans, qualified HUBZone 

14 small business concern, small business con15 cern owned and controlled by socially and 

16 economically disadvantaged individuals, or 

17 small business concern owned and con18 trolled by women, as applicable, that such 

19 concern had at the time the contract was 

20 awarded. 

21 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION.—The requirements 

22 of clause (i) shall not apply to a contract 

23 awarded to a joint venture of small busi24 ness concerns that is a protege under a 


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1 mentor-protege program approved pursu2 ant to section 45.’’. 

3 (c) RULEMAKING.—Not later than 1 year after the 

4 date of enactment of this section, the Administrator of the 

5 Small Business Administration shall issue any regulations 

6 necessary to carry out the amendments made by this sec7 tion. 

Æ 


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