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§ 3703. Competitive proposals 
(a) EVALUATION AND AWARD.—An executive agency shall evaluate com-
petitive proposals in accordance with section 3701(a) of this title and may 
award a contract— 
(1) after discussions with the offerors, provided that written or oral 
discussions have been conducted with all responsible offerors who sub-
mit proposals within the competitive range; or 
(2) based on the proposals received and without discussions with the 
offerors (other than discussions conducted for the purpose of minor 
clarification), if, as required by section 3306(b)(2)(B)(i) of this title, 
the solicitation included a statement that proposals are intended to be 
evaluated, and award made, without discussions unless discussions are 
determined to be necessary. 
(b) LIMIT ON NUMBER OF PROPOSALS.—If the contracting officer deter-
mines that the number of offerors that would otherwise be included in the 
competitive range under subsection (a)(1) exceeds the number at which an 
efficient competition can be conducted, the contracting officer may limit the 
number of proposals in the competitive range, in accordance with the cri-
teria specified in the solicitation, to the greatest number that will permit 
an efficient competition among the offerors rated most highly in accordance 
with those criteria. 
(c) CRITERIA FOR AWARDING CONTRACT.—Except as otherwise provided 
in section 3701(b) of this title, the executive agency shall award a contract 
with reasonable promptness to the responsible source whose proposal is most 
advantageous to the Federal Government, considering only cost or price and 
the other factors included in the solicitation. 
(d) NOTICE OF AWARD.—The executive agency shall award the contract 
by transmitting, in writing or by electronic means, notice of the award to 
that source and, within 3 days after the date of contract award, shall notify, 
in writing or by electronic means, all other offerors of the rejection of their 
proposals. 
§ 3704. Post-award debriefings 
(a) REQUEST FOR DEBRIEFING.—When a contract is awarded by the 
head of an executive agency on the basis of competitive proposals, an unsuc-
cessful offeror, on written request received by the agency within 3 days after 
the date on which the unsuccessful offeror receives the notification of the 
contract award, shall be debriefed and furnished the basis for the selection 
decision and contract award. 
(b) WHEN DEBRIEFING TO BE CONDUCTED.—The executive agency shall 
debrief the offeror within, to the maximum extent practicable, 5 days after 
receipt of the request by the executive agency. 
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(c) INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED.—The debriefing shall include, at a 
minimum— 
(1) the executive agency’s evaluation of the significant weak or defi-
cient factors in the offeror’s offer; 
(2) the overall evaluated cost and technical rating of the offer of the 
contractor awarded the contract and the overall evaluated cost and 
technical rating of the offer of the debriefed offeror; 
(3) the overall ranking of all offers; 
(4) a summary of the rationale for the award; 
(5) in the case of a proposal that includes a commercial item that 
is an end item under the contract, the make and model of the item 
being provided in accordance with the offer of the contractor awarded 
the contract; and 
(6) reasonable responses to relevant questions posed by the debriefed 
offeror as to whether source selection procedures set forth in the solici-
tation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were fol-
lowed by the executive agency. 
(d) INFORMATION NOT TO BE INCLUDED.—The debriefing may not in-
clude point-by-point comparisons of the debriefed offeror’s offer with other 
offers and may not disclose any information that is exempt from disclosure 
under section 552(b) of title 5. 
(e) INCLUSION OF STATEMENT IN SOLICITATION.—Each solicitation for 
competitive proposals shall include a statement that information described 
in subsection (c) may be disclosed in post-award debriefings. 
(f) AFTER SUCCESSFUL PROTEST.—If, within one year after the date of 
the contract award and as a result of a successful procurement protest, the 
executive agency seeks to fulfill the requirement under the protested con-
tract either on the basis of a new solicitation of offers or on the basis of 
new best and final offers requested for that contract, the head of the execu-
tive agency shall make available to all offerors— 
(1) the information provided in debriefings under this section regard-
ing the offer of the contractor awarded the contract; and 
(2) the same information that would have been provided to the origi-
nal offerors. 
(g) SUMMARY TO BE INCLUDED IN FILE.—The contracting officer shall 
include a summary of the debriefing in the contract file. 
§ 3705. Pre-award debriefings 
(a) REQUEST FOR DEBRIEFING.—When the contracting officer excludes 
an offeror submitting a competitive proposal from the competitive range (or 
otherwise excludes that offeror from further consideration prior to the final 
source selection decision), the excluded offeror may request in writing, with-
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in 3 days after the date on which the excluded offeror receives notice of its 
exclusion, a debriefing prior to award. 
(b) WHEN DEBRIEFING TO BE CONDUCTED.—The contracting officer 
shall make every effort to debrief the unsuccessful offeror as soon as prac-
ticable but may refuse the request for a debriefing if it is not in the best 
interests of the Federal Government to conduct a debriefing at that time. 
(c) PRECONDITION FOR POST-AWARD DEBRIEFING.—The contracting of-
ficer is required to debrief an excluded offeror in accordance with section 
3704 of this title only if that offeror requested and was refused a pre-award 
debriefing under subsections (a) and (b). 
(d) INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED.—The debriefing conducted under 
this section shall include— 
(1) the executive agency’s evaluation of the significant elements in 
the offeror’s offer; 
(2) a summary of the rationale for the offeror’s exclusion; and 
(3) reasonable responses to relevant questions posed by the debriefed 
offeror as to whether source selection procedures set forth in the solici-
tation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were fol-
lowed by the executive agency. 
(e) INFORMATION NOT TO BE DISCLOSED.—The debriefing conducted 
pursuant to this section may not disclose the number or identity of other 
offerors and shall not disclose information about the content, ranking, or 
evaluation of other offerors’ proposals. 
(f) SUMMARY TO BE INCLUDED IN FILE.—The contracting officer shall 
include a summary of the debriefing in the contract file. 
§ 3706. Encouragement of alternative dispute resolution 
The Federal Acquisition Regulation shall include a provision encouraging 
the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques to provide informal, ex-
peditious, and inexpensive procedures for an offeror to consider using before 
filing a protest, prior to the award of a contract, of the exclusion of the 
offeror from the competitive range (or otherwise from further consideration) 
for that contract. 
§ 3707. Antitrust violations 
If the agency head considers that a bid or proposal evidences a violation 
of the antitrust laws, the agency head shall refer the bid or proposal to the 
Attorney General for appropriate action. 
§ 3708. Protests 
(a) PROTEST FILE.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT AND ACCESS.—If, in the case of a solicitation 
for a contract issued by, or an award or proposed award of a contract 
by, the head of an executive agency, a protest is filed pursuant to the 
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