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) in-
troduced 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 com-
mittee concerned
A BILL
To require Federal agencies to follow certain procedures with
respect to the bundling of procurement contract require-
ments, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Small Business Con-
tract Equity Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. PROCEDURES FOR BUNDLING CONTRACTS.
(a) PROCEDURES FOR BUNDLING OF CONTRACTS.—
Notwithstanding any other law, the following procedures
shall apply to a solicitation that is issued by an executive
department or agency for the procurement of goods or
services and that the Administrator of the Small Business
Administration determines would result in the displace-
ment of any small-business concern:
(1) SUBMISSION
OF
DRAFT
SOLICITATION.—
The head of the department or agency shall forward,
at least 20 days prior to the publication of any solic-
itation for goods or services in Commerce Business
Daily (or its electronic successor), a draft of such
solicitation to the Administrator of the Small Busi-
ness Administration, for determination by the Ad-
ministrator whether the draft solicitation would re-
sult in a bundled contract.
(2) DETERMINATION.—Not later than 10 days
after the date of receipt of the draft solicitation, the
Administrator shall make the determination de-
scribed in paragraph (1) and submit such deter-
mination to the head of the department or agency.
If the Administrator concludes that the draft solici-
tation would result in a bundled contract, the head
of the department or agency may not publish the so-
licitation until the department or agency head un-
dertakes market research for the proposed solicita-
tion as described in section 15(e) of the Small Busi-
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)) and the regulations pro-
mulgated thereunder on December 27, 1999.
(3) STUDY.—Not later than 45 days after the
date that the Administrator has made the deter-
mination under paragraph (2), the head of the de-
partment or agency shall submit to the Adminis-
trator a study to support the proposed bundled con-
tract which demonstrates measurable savings as set
forth in the regulations implementing the Small
Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 (Public Law
105–135; 111 Stat. 2592) (including the amend-
ments made by that Act), and that the quality of the
goods or services to be procured under the draft so-
licitation are equal in quality to the goods or services
currently obtained by the head of the department or
agency.
(4) REVIEW
OF
STUDY.—Not later than 10
days after the submission of the study, the Adminis-
trator shall determine whether the study meets the
standards set forth in the Small Business Reauthor-
ization Act of 1997 (including the amendments
made by that Act) and the regulations promulgated
thereunder on December 27, 1999. The Adminis-
trator shall specify in writing any deficiencies in the
study and proposed changes to the draft solicitation
(including, but not limited to, the reduction in size
or scope of the draft solicitation) so as to comply
with the requirements in such Act and regulations.
If the head of the agency does not concur in a deter-
mination of the Administrator under this paragraph,
the head of the agency may appeal the determina-
tion to the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget, who shall either grant or deny the ap-
peal within 5 days. Any determination by the Direc-
tor shall be final. The Director may delegate his du-
ties set forth in this paragraph to a subordinate offi-
cial within the Office of Management and Budget
appointed by the President with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate.
(5) PUBLICATION
OF
SOLICITATION.—If the
Administrator determines that the study meets the
standards set forth in the Small Business Reauthor-
ization Act of 1997 and the regulations promulgated
thereunder, and that the goals described in section
15(g)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.
644(g)(2)) for the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year
in which the draft solicitation was forwarded to the
Administrator under paragraph (1) have been met,
the head of the department or agency may publish
the solicitation in Commerce Business Daily (or its
electronic successor).
(6) REVISION OF SOLICITATION.—If the Admin-
istrator determines that the study does not meet
such standards, the head of the department or agen-
cy shall revise the solicitation and perform a new
study pursuant to the procedures set forth in para-
graphs (1) through (3).
(b) WAIVER.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The requirements of sub-
section (a) may be waived by the Administrator if
the Administrator determines that an unusual or un-
expected exigency justifies a waiver.
(2) APPEAL.—The head of an agency may ap-
peal any waiver request to the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget, who shall either grant
or deny the appeal within 5 days. Any determination
by the Director shall be final. The Director may del-
egate the duties set forth in this paragraph to a sub-
ordinate official within the Office of Management
and Budget appointed by the President with the ad-
vice and consent of the Senate.
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the term—
(1) ‘‘bundled contract’’ means any contract, ir-
respective of benefit or dollar value, that displaces
two or more small-business concerns; and
(2) ‘‘small-business concern’’ has the meaning
given that term in section 3(a) of the Small Busi-
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)).
(d) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator shall promul-
gate regulations to implement this section according to the
following procedures:
(1) Not later than 30 days after the date of en-
actment of this Act, the Administrator shall publish,
for notice and comment, proposed rules to imple-
ment this section.
(2) The Administrator shall receive comments
on the proposed rules for 45 days. At the close of
the comment period, the Administrator shall consult
with the department or agency head on the promul-
gation of final rules.
(3) If no final rule has been published within
120 days after the effective date of this Act, the reg-
ulations published in proposed form pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall become final.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BUNDLING OF CON-
TRACT REQUIREMENTS.
Section 3(o) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.
632(o)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, regardless
of the terminology that the contracting agency uses
to refer to such a contract and regardless of whether
such agency has conducted a study of the effects of
the solicitation for the contract on civilian or mili-
tary personnel of the United States’’ before the pe-
riod at the end; and
(2) in paragraph (2)—
(A) by striking ‘‘The term’’ and inserting
‘‘Regardless of the terminology that the con-
tracting agency uses to refer to such a consoli-
dation, the term’’; and
(B) by inserting ‘‘or multiple contracts, or
the creation of any new procurement require-
ment that permits such consolidation,’’ after
‘‘solicitation of offers for a single contract’’.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT RE-
QUIREMENTS BY AGENCIES THAT FAIL TO
MEET CERTAIN SMALL BUSINESS PROCURE-
MENT PARTICIPATION GOALS.
(a) PROHIBITION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT RE-
QUIREMENTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 15(e) of the Small
Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)) is amended by add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘(5) RESTRICTION ON BUNDLING OF CONTRACT
REQUIREMENTS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If a report submitted
under subsection (h)(2) includes a finding that
an agency failed, in any fiscal year covered by
the report, to attain any goal described in sub-
paragraph (B), the agency may not award a
contract that is determined by the Adminis-
trator to be a bundled contract under section 2
or solicit offers for a bundled contract for the
duration of the fiscal year beginning on the
first October 1 after the submission of the re-
port.
‘‘(B) GOALS TO BE MET.—For the pur-
poses of subparagraph (A), an agency shall be
required to meet the each goal described in sub-
section (g)(2) that relates to any of the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(i) small business concerns generally;
‘‘(ii) small business concerns owned
and controlled by socially and economically
disadvantaged individuals; and
‘‘(iii) small business concerns owned
and controlled by women.’’.
(2) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by
paragraph (1) shall apply only to—
(A) solicitations of offers to contract issued
on or after October 1, 2001; and
(B) contracts awarded pursuant to such
solicitations.
(b) DEADLINES RELATING TO DETERMINATION OF
GOAL ATTAINMENT.—Section 15(h) of the Small Business
Act (15 U.S.C. 644(h)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (2) in the first sentence, by
inserting ‘‘by not later than December 31 of each
year’’ before the period at the end; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(4) By not later than September 15 of each year,
the Administrator of General Services shall transmit to
the Administration a preliminary report, for the period be-
ginning on October 1 and ending on August 31 of the pre-
vious year, containing data and information, obtained
from the Federal Procurement Data System, dem-
onstrating the extent to which each agency met each goal
set forth in subsection (g)(2). Not later than October 15
of each year, the Administrator of General Services shall
transmit to the Administration a final report containing
such data for the previous year.’’.
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