Title: Promoting Value Based Procurement Act of 2017
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
Promoting Value Based Procurement Act of 2017
This bill declares that it shall be U.S. government policy to avoid using lowest price technically acceptable source selection criteria in circumstances that would deny the government the benefits of cost and technical trade-offs.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation shall be revised to require that such criteria shall be used for solicitations only when:
The use of such criteria shall be avoided for a procurement that is predominately for the acquisition of:
The Government Accountability Office shall report annually for four years on the number of instances in which such criteria is used for a contract exceeding $2 million.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3019 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3019

 To require executive agencies to avoid using lowest price technically 
acceptable source selection criteria in certain circumstances, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 22, 2017

  Mr. Meadows (for himself, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Connolly, and Mr. Wittman) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                    Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require executive agencies to avoid using lowest price technically 
acceptable source selection criteria in certain circumstances, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting Value Based Procurement 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. USE OF LOWEST PRICE TECHNICALLY ACCEPTABLE SOURCE SELECTION 
              PROCESS.

    (a) Statement of Policy.--It shall be the policy of the United 
States Government to avoid using lowest price technically acceptable 
source selection criteria in circumstances that would deny the 
Government the benefits of cost and technical tradeoffs in the source 
selection process.
    (b) Revision of Federal Acquisition Regulation.--Not later than 120 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal 
Acquisition Regulation shall be revised to require that, for 
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 criteria are used only in situations in which--
            (1) an executive agency is able to comprehensively and 
        clearly describe the minimum requirements expressed in terms of 
        performance objectives, measures, and standards that will be 
        used to determine acceptability of offers;
            (2) the executive agency would realize no, or minimal, 
        value from a contract proposal exceeding the minimum technical 
        or performance requirements set forth in the request for 
        proposal;
            (3) the proposed technical approaches will require no, or 
        minimal, subjective judgment by the source selection authority 
        as to the desirability of one offeror's proposal versus a 
        competing proposal;
            (4) the source selection authority has a high degree of 
        confidence that a review of technical proposals of offerors 
        other than the lowest bidder would not result in the 
        identification of factors that could provide value or benefit 
        to the executive agency;
            (5) the contracting officer has included a justification 
        for the use of a lowest price technically acceptable evaluation 
        methodology in the contract file; and
            (6) the executive agency has determined that the lowest 
        price reflects full life-cycle costs, including for operations 
        and support.
    (c) Avoidance of Use of Lowest Price Technically Acceptable Source 
Selection Criteria in Certain Procurements.--To the maximum extent 
practicable, the use of lowest price technically acceptable source 
selection criteria shall be avoided in the case of a procurement that 
is predominately for the acquisition of--
            (1) information technology services, cybersecurity 
        services, systems engineering and technical assistance 
        services, advanced electronic testing, audit or audit readiness 
        services, or other knowledge-based professional services;
            (2) personal protective equipment; or
            (3) knowledge-based training or logistics services in 
        contingency operations or other operations outside the United 
        States, including in Afghanistan or Iraq.
    (d) Reporting.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for three years, the 
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the 
appropriate congressional committees a report on the number of 
instances in which lowest price technically acceptable source selection 
criteria is used for a contract exceeding $2,000,000, including an 
explanation of how the situations listed in subsection (b) were 
considered in making a determination to use lowest price technically 
acceptable source selection criteria.
    (e) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Executive agency.--The term ``executive agency'' has 
        the meaning given that term in section 102 of title 40, United 
        States Code, except that the term does not include the 
        Department of Defense.
            (2) Contingency operation.--The term ``contingency 
        operation'' has the meaning given that term in section 101 of 
        title 10, United States Code.
            (3) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee on 
        Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives 
        and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
        of the Senate.
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