104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. J. RES. 194
JOINT RESOLUTION
Granting the consent of the Congress to amendments made
by Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to
the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Regulation
Compact.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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SECTION 1. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO AMENDMENTS TO
COMPACT.
The Congress consents to the amendments of the
State of Maryland (chapter 252, 1995 Acts of the Mary-
land General Assembly and chapter 489, 1996 Laws of
Maryland), the amendments of the Commonwealth of Vir-
ginia (chapter 150, 1995 Acts of Assembly of Virginia),
and the amendments of the District of Columbia (D.C.
Law 11–138) of title III of the Washington Metropolitan
Area Transit Regulation Compact. Such amendments are
substantially as follows:
(1) Section 3 is amended to read as follows:
‘‘Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Zone
‘‘3. There is hereby created the Washington Metro-
politan Area Transit Zone which shall embrace the Dis-
trict of Columbia, the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church
and Fairfax and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, and
Loudoun and political subdivisions of the Commonwealth
of Virginia located within those counties, and the counties
of Montgomery and Prince George’s in the State of Mary-
land and political subdivisions of the State of Maryland
located in said counties.’’.
(2) Subsection (a) of section 5 is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(a) The Authority shall be governed by a Board of
six Directors consisting of two Directors for each signa-
•HJ 194 EH
tory. For Virginia, the Directors shall be appointed by the
Northern Virginia Transportation Commission; for the
District of Columbia, by the Council of the District of Co-
lumbia; and for Maryland, by the Washington Suburban
Transit Commission. For Virginia and Maryland, the Di-
rectors shall be appointed from among the members of the
appointing body, except as otherwise provided herein, and
shall serve for a term coincident with their term on the
appointing body. A Director may be removed or suspended
from office only as provided by the law of the signatory
from which he was appointed. The appointing authorities
shall also appoint an alternate for each Director, who may
act only in the absence of the Director for whom he has
been appointed an alternate, except that, in the case of
the District of Columbia where only one Director and his
alternate are present, such alternate may act on behalf
of the absent Director. Each alternate shall serve at the
pleasure of the appointing authority. In the event of a va-
cancy in the Office of Director or alternate, it shall be
filled in the same manner as an original appointment.’’.
(3) Subsection (a) of section 8 is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(a) Four Directors or alternates consisting of at
least one Director or alternate appointed from each Signa-
tory, shall constitute a quorum and no action by the Board
•HJ 194 EH
shall be effective unless a majority of the Board present
and voting, which majority shall include at least one Direc-
tor or alternate from each Signatory, concur therein; pro-
vided, however, that a plan of financing may be adopted
or a mass transit plan adopted, altered, revised or amend-
ed by the unanimous vote of the Directors representing
any two Signatories.’’.
(4) Subsection (b) of section 14 is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(b) It shall be the duty and responsibility of each
member of the Board to serve as liaison between the
Board and the body which appointed him to the Board.
To provide a framework for regional participation in the
planning process, the Board shall create technical commit-
tees concerned with planning and collection and analyses
of data relative to decision-making in the transportation
planning process and the Mayor and Council of the Dis-
trict of Columbia, the component governments of the
Northern Virginia Transportation District and the Wash-
ington Suburban Transit District shall appoint represent-
atives to such technical committees and otherwise cooper-
ate with the Board in the formulation of a mass transit
plan, or in revisions, alterations or amendments thereof.’’.
(5)(A) Paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of section 15
is amended to read as follows:
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‘‘(1) The Mayor and Council of the District of
Columbia, the Northern Virginia Transportation
Commission and the Washington Suburban Transit
Commission;’’.
(B) Paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of section 15 is
amended to read as follows:
‘‘(3) the transportation agencies of the signato-
ries;’’.
(C) The last paragraph of section 15 is amended to
read as follows:
‘‘(b) A copy of the proposed mass transit plan,
amendment or revision, shall be kept at the office of the
Board and shall be available for public inspection. Infor-
mation with respect thereto shall be released to the public.
After thirty days’ notice published once a week for two
successive weeks in one or more newspapers of general cir-
culation within the zone, a public hearing shall be held
with respect to the proposed plan, alteration, revision or
amendment. The thirty days’ notice shall begin to run on
the first day the notice appears in any such newspaper.
The Board shall consider the evidence submitted and
statements and comments made at such meeting and may
make any changes in the proposed plan, amendment or
revision which it deems appropriate and such changes may
be made without further hearing.’’.
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(6) Subsection (a) of section 70 is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(a) As soon as practical after the closing of the fiscal
year, an audit shall be made of the financial accounts of
the Authority. The audit shall be made by qualified cer-
tified public accountants selected by the Board, who shall
have no personal interest direct or indirect in the financial
affairs of the Authority or any of its officers or employees.
The report of audit shall be prepared in accordance with
generally accepted auditing principles and shall be filed
with the Chairman and other officers as the Board shall
direct. Copies of the report shall be distributed to each
Director, to the Congress, to the Mayor and Council of
the District of Columbia, to the Governors of Virginia and
Maryland, to the Washington Suburban Transit Commis-
sion, to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission
and to the governing bodies of the political subdivisions
located within the Zone which are parties to commitments
for participation in the financing of the Authority and
shall be made available for public distribution.’’.
(7) Section 73 is amended to read as follows:
‘‘Contracting and Purchasing
‘‘73. (a)(1) Except as provided in subsections (b), (c),
and (f) of this section, and except in the case of procure-
ment procedures otherwise expressly authorized by stat-
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ute, the Authority in conducting a procurement of prop-
erty, services, or construction shall:
‘‘(A) obtain full and open competition through
the use of competitive procedures in accordance with
the requirements of this Section; and
‘‘(B) use the competitive procedure or combina-
tion of competitive procedures that is best suited
under the circumstances of the procurement.
‘‘(2) In determining the competitive procedure appro-
priate under the circumstances, the Authority shall:
‘‘(A) solicit sealed bids if:
‘‘(i) time permits the solicitation, submis-
sion, and evaluation of sealed bids;
‘‘(ii) the award will be made on the basis
of price and other price-related factors;
‘‘(iii) it is not necessary to conduct discus-
sions with the responding sources about their
bids; and
‘‘(iv) there is a reasonable expectation of
receiving more than one sealed bid; or
‘‘(B) request competitive proposals if sealed
bids are not appropriate under clause (A) of this
paragraph.
‘‘(b) The Authority may provide for the procurement
of property, services, or construction covered by this Sec-
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tion using competitive procedures but excluding a particu-
lar source in order to establish or maintain an alternative
source or sources of supply for that property, service, or
construction if the Authority determines that excluding
the source would increase or maintain competition and
would likely result in reduced overall costs for procure-
ment of property, services, or construction.
‘‘(c) The Authority may use procedures other than
competitive procedures if:
‘‘(1) the property, services, or construction
needed by the Authority is available from only one
responsible source and no other type of property,
services, or construction will satisfy the needs of the
Authority; or
‘‘(2) the Authority’s need for the property, serv-
ices, or construction is of such an unusual and com-
pelling urgency that the Authority would be seriously
injured unless the Authority limits the number of
sources from which it solicits bids or proposals; or
‘‘(3) the Authority determines that it is nec-
essary in the public interest to use procedures other
than competitive procedures in the particular pro-
curement; or
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‘‘(4) the property or services can be obtained
through federal or other governmental sources at
reasonable prices.
‘‘(d) For the purpose of applying subsection (c)(1)
of this section:
‘‘(1) in the case of a contract for property, serv-
ices, or construction to be awarded on the basis of
acceptance of an unsolicited proposal, the property,
services, or construction shall be deemed to be avail-
able from only one responsible source if the source
has submitted an unsolicited proposal that dem-
onstrates a concept:
‘‘(A) that is unique and innovative or, in
the case of a service, for which the source dem-
onstrates a unique capability to provide the
service; and
‘‘(B) the substance of which is not other-
wise available to the Authority and does not re-
semble the substance of a pending competitive
procurement.
‘‘(2) in the case of a follow-on contract for the
continued development or production of a major sys-
tem or highly specialized equipment or the continued
provision of highly specialized services, the property,
services, or construction may be deemed to be avail-
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able from only the original source and may be pro-
cured through procedures other than competitive
procedures if it is likely that award to a source other
than the original source would result in:
‘‘(A) substantial duplication of cost to the
Authority that is not expected to be recovered
through competition; or
‘‘(B) unacceptable delays in fulfilling the
Authority’s needs.
‘‘(e) If the Authority uses procedures other than com-
petitive procedures to procure property, services, or con-
struction under subsection (c)(2) of this section, the Au-
thority shall request offers from as many potential sources
as is practicable under the circumstances.
‘‘(f)(1) To promote efficiency and economy in con-
tracting, the Authority may use simplified acquisition pro-
cedures for purchases of property, services and construc-
tion.
‘‘(2) For the purposes of this subsection, simplified
acquisition procedures may be used for purchases for an
amount that does not exceed the simplified acquisition
threshold adopted by the Federal Government.
‘‘(3) A proposed purchase or contract for an amount
above the simplified acquisition threshold may not be di-
vided into several purchases or contracts for lesser
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amounts in order to use the procedures under paragraph
(1) of this subsection.
‘‘(4) In using simplified acquisition procedures, the
Authority shall promote competition to the maximum ex-
tent practicable.
‘‘(g) The Board shall adopt policies and procedures
to implement this Section. The policies and procedures
shall provide for publication of notice of procurements and
other actions designed to secure competition where com-
petitive procedures are used.
‘‘(h) The Authority in its discretion may reject any
and all bids or proposals received in response to a solicita-
tion.’’.
(8) Section 81 is amended to read as follows:
‘‘Jurisdiction of Courts
‘‘81. The United States District Courts shall have
original jurisdiction, concurrent with the Courts of Mary-
land, Virginia and the District of Columbia, of all actions
brought by or against the Authority and to enforce sub-
poenas issued under this Title. Any such action initiated
in a State or District of Columbia Court shall be remov-
able to the appropriate United States District Court in
the manner provided by Act of June 25, 1948, as amended
(28 U.S.C. 1446).’’.
(9) Section 84 is amended to read as follows:
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‘‘Amendments and Supplements
‘‘84. Amendments and supplements to this Title to
implement the purposes thereof may be adopted by legisla-
tive action of any of the signatory parties concurred in
by all of the others. When one signatory adopts an amend-
ment or supplement to an existing section of the Compact.
that amendment shall not be immediately effective, and
the previously enacted provision(s) shall remain in effect
in each jurisdiction until the amendment or supplement
is approved by the other signatories and is consented to
by Congress.’’.
Passed the House of Representatives September 24,
1996.
Attest:
Clerk.