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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Value 
Based Defense Procurement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It shall be the policy of the Department of Defense 
to avoid using Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source 
selection criteria in inappropriate circumstances that po-
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tentially deny the Department the benefits of cost and 
technical tradeoffs in the source selection process. 
SEC. 3. REVISION OF DEFENSE FEDERAL ACQUISITION 
REGULATION SUPPLEMENT. 
For new solicitations issued on or after the date that 
is 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source selection cri-
teria shall be used only in situations in which— 
(1) the Department of Defense is able to com-
prehensively and clearly describe the minimum re-
quirements expressed in terms of performance objec-
tives, measures, and standards that will be used to 
determine acceptability of offers; 
(2) the Department of Defense would realize 
no, or minimal, value from a contract proposal ex-
ceeding the minimum technical or performance re-
quirements set forth in the Request for Proposal; 
(3) the proposed technical approaches will re-
quire no, or minimal, subjective judgment by the 
source selection authority as to the desirability of 
one offeror’s proposal versus a competing proposal; 
(4) a review of technical proposals of offerors 
other than the lowest bidder would result in no, or 
minimal, benefit to the Department; and 
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(5) the contracting officer has included a jus-
tification for the use of a Lowest Price Technically 
Acceptable evaluation methodology in the contract 
file, if the contract to be awarded is predominately 
for the acquisition of information technology serv-
ices, systems engineering and technical assistance 
services, or other knowledge-based professional serv-
ices. 
SEC. 4. AVOIDANCE OF USE OF LOWEST PRICE TECH-
NICALLY ACCEPTABLE SOURCE SELECTION 
CRITERIA IN PROCUREMENTS OF INFORMA-
TION TECHNOLOGY AND AUDITING. 
To the maximum extent practicable, the use of Low-
est Price Technically Acceptable source selection criteria 
shall be avoided when the procurement is predominately 
for the acquisition of information technology services, sys-
tems engineering and technical assistance services, audit 
or audit readiness services, or other knowledge-based pro-
fessional services. 
SEC. 5. REPORTING. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 3 years, the 
Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional de-
fense committees a report on the number of instances in 
which Lowest Price Technically Acceptable source selec-
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tion criteria is used, including an explanation of how the 
criteria in section 2 was considered when making a deter-
mination to use Lowest Price Technically Acceptable 
source selection criteria. 
Æ 
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