I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2008 
To amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit inserting politics into 
the Federal acquisition process by prohibiting the submission of political 
contribution information as a condition of receiving a Federal contract. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 26, 2011 
Mr. ISSA (for himself, Mr. COLE, Mr. GRAVES of Missouri, Mr. AMASH, Mr. 
GOWDY, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. ROSS of Florida, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. 
WALBERG, and Mr. KELLY) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit inserting 
politics into the Federal acquisition process by prohib-
iting the submission of political contribution information 
as a condition of receiving a Federal contract. 
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 ‘‘Keeping Politics Out 
of Federal Contracting Act of 2011’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN USES OF POLITICAL IN-
FORMATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 41, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new section: 
‘‘§ 4712. Prohibition on certain uses of political infor-
mation 
‘‘(a) PROHIBITION ON REQUIRING SUBMISSION OF 
POLITICAL INFORMATION.—The head of an executive 
agency may not require a contractor to submit political 
information related to the contractor or a subcontractor 
at any tier, or any partner, officer, director, or employee 
of the contractor or subcontractor— 
‘‘(1) as part of a solicitation, request for bid, 
request for proposal, or any other form of commu-
nication designed to solicit offers in connection with 
the award of a contract for procurement of property 
or services; 
‘‘(2) during the course of contract performance 
as part of the process associated with modifying a 
contract or exercising a contract option; or 
‘‘(3) any time prior to contract completion and 
final contract closeout. 
‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON USE OF POLITICAL INFORMA-
TION.—The head of an executive agency may not use po-
litical information, whether obtained from a contractor or 
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prospective contractor or from an independent public or 
nonpublic source, as a factor or consideration in the source 
selection process used to award a competitive or non-com-
petitive contract at any value or in making any decision 
associated with the modification of a contract or the exer-
cise of a contract option. 
‘‘(c) PROHIBITION ON INCLUSION OF POLITICAL IN-
FORMATION IN CONTRACTING DATABASES.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under 
paragraph (2), an executive agency may not include 
political information in the contracting past per-
formance database or any database designed to pro-
vide information to a contracting officer for pur-
poses of supporting the responsibility determination 
by such officer. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN 
VIOLATIONS.— 
‘‘(A) EXCEPTION.—Data required as of 
the date of the enactment of the Keeping Poli-
tics Out of Federal Contracting Act of 2011 to 
be included in the database maintained under 
section 2313 of this title are not subject to the 
prohibition under paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Notwith-
standing subparagraph (A), this paragraph 
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shall not be construed as authorizing the inclu-
sion of political information pursuant to sub-
section (c)(6) of such section. 
‘‘(d) APPLICABILITY.—The prohibitions under this 
section apply to the procurement of commercial items, the 
procurement of commercial off-the-shelf items, and the 
non-commercial procurement of supplies, property, serv-
ices, and manufactured items, irrespective of contract ve-
hicle, including contracts, purchase orders, task or deliver 
orders under indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity con-
tracts, blanket purchase agreements, and basic ordering 
agreements. 
‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed as waiving, superseding, restrict-
ing, or limiting the application of the Federal Election 
Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) or pre-
venting Federal regulatory or law enforcement agencies 
from collecting or receiving information authorized by law. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) ACQUISITION.—The term ‘acquisition’ has 
the meaning given the term in section 131 of this 
title. 
‘‘(2) CONTRACTOR.—The term ‘contractor’ in-
cludes contractors, bidders, and offerors, and indi-
viduals and legal entities who would reasonably be 
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expected to submit offers or bids for Federal Gov-
ernment contracts. 
‘‘(3) EXECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘executive 
agency’ has the meaning given the term in section 
133 of this title. 
‘‘(4) POLITICAL INFORMATION.—The term ‘po-
litical information’ means information relating to po-
litical spending, including any payment consisting of 
a contribution, expenditure, independent expendi-
ture, or disbursement for an electioneering commu-
nication that is made by the contractor, any of its 
partners, officers, directors or employees, or any of 
its affiliates or subsidiaries to a candidate or on be-
half of a candidate for election for Federal office, to 
a political committee, to a political party, to a third- 
party entity with the intention or reasonable expec-
tation that it would use the payment to make inde-
pendent expenditures or electioneering communica-
tions, or that is otherwise made with respect to any 
election for Federal office, party affiliation, and vot-
ing history. Each of the terms ‘contribution’, ‘ex-
penditure’, ‘independent expenditure’, ‘candidate’, 
‘election’, ‘electioneering communication’, and ‘Fed-
eral office’ has the meaning given the term in the 
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Federal Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et 
seq.).’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
at the beginning of chapter 47 of title 41, United States 
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
section 4711 the following new item: 
‘‘4712. Prohibition on Certain Uses of Political Information.’’ 
Æ 
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