Level Playing Field Contracting Act of 2010

Bill: 111-s-3101
Sponsor: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]
Introduced: 2010-03-10 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Army Corps of Engineers
Congressional oversight
Department of Homeland Security
General Services Administration
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Military procurement, research, weapons development
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Public contracts and procurement
Small business

Summary:
action_date: 2010-03-10
text: 
Level Playing Field Contracting Act of 2010 - Directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to prohibit an executive agency from entering into a covered consolidated civilian contract valued in excess of $2 million unless the agency's senior procurement official determines that the contract's consolidation is necessary and justified under specified criteria. Defines such a consolidated contract as: (1) a multiple award contract; or (2) a contract for property or services that combines discrete procurement requirements from existing contracts, adds new procurement requirements to an existing contract, or includes two or more procurement or acquisition requirements and that does not include any consolidated acquisition, procurement, or contracting plan of the Department of Defense (DOD).
 
Requires the Secretary of Defense to modify the DOD Supplement to FAR to prohibit an agency from entering into a covered consolidated Defense contract (a similarly defined DOD contract) valued in excess of $7.5 million unless the agency's senior procurement official determines that the contract's consolidation is necessary and justified under specified criteria or is appropriate in the face of exigent circumstances and national security.
 
Directs the Council to amend FAR to require: (1) an agency to use a numeric grading or other quantitative methodology to evaluate bid proposals for each contract that is awarded through full and open competitive procedures and to disclose the methodology in the bid solicitation documents for the contract; and (2) agencies to encourage prospective contractors to utilize contracting assistance resources that are offered in their communities.
 
Directs: (1) the Administrator of General Services (GSA) to report, annually, on efforts to enforce the local workforce subcontracting requirements included in GSA contracts; (2) each agency to report on the strength and sufficiency of its acquisition workforce; and (3) the Comptroller General to conduct studies of the effects of changes in the definition of and size standards for a "small business concern," the degree to which GSA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have entered into contracts since January 1, 2004, with contractors that have previous experience performing federal contracts, and the size and experience of contractors awarded contracts by such entities.
 
Amends the Small Business Act to require the Administrator of Small Business (SBA) and the GSA Administrator to jointly establish an outreach program to: (1) communicate with small businesses regarding government contracting opportunities; and (2) inform small businesses about opportunities to learn about the government contracting process.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2010-03-10
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2010-03-10
text: Introduced in Senate