Can a Federal Agency enter into an agreement under the Economy Act with a State Agency?

FAR 17.501 Definition of interagency acquisition "means a procedure by which an agency needing supplies or services (the requesting agency) obtains them from another agency (the servicing agency)."

31 U.S.C. 1535 states "The head of an agency or major organizational unit within an agency may place an order with a major organizational unit within the same agency or another agency for goods or services if -"

The FAR or U.S.C. does not define "Agency"

By casia on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - 12:30 pm:

Good question, and I also would like to know the definitive answer.

My first reaction would be no, that the Economy Act provides for a federal-to-federal relationship.

We have MOU's with states, but have never done an IA with a state government.

I'm sure some of the more experienced contracting professionals out there can teach me something here.

By formerfed on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - 01:26 pm:

You're right Casia. The Economy Act covers only Federal "agencies". There are several other instruments used with State, local and other governments including MOUs and certain types of agreements. Generally, the Federal agency entering into them need some basis to do it, other than routine MOUs stating how certain administrative situations or transactions are handled. MOUs usually don't involve money. Often agencies use Cooperative Agreements to further fulfilling some agency mission when transferring money or other resources.

By bob antonio on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - 03:08 pm:

There are two threads under Grants and Cooperatives Agreements that include discussions with working with state governments.

By Anonymous on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 07:48 am:

It does not appear to me that this would fall into either one of these categories (MOU or Cooperative Agreement).

As I read Sec. 6305 of Title 31, Using Cooperative Agreement, we would meet the requirements of item 1 but we would not meet the requirement of item 2 "substantial involvement is expected between the executive agency and the State, local government, or other recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated in the agreement". What we are doing is paying States to provide data, there is no substantial involvement.

By Dave Barnett on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 01:13 pm:

If no substantial involvement between the agency and the State in carrying out the purpose of the action is contemplated then isn't a grant the more appropriate instrument in lieu of a cooperative agreement?

By Anonymous on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 02:54 pm:

Dave

I was wrong, this can not be a cooperative agreement or grant as the data provided is for the direct benefit and use of the government.

Formerfed
I was always under the impression that the Economy Act only covers Federal agencies, however, when you read the language in Title 31 they use the term "agency." How is one to determine the definition of agency? One reason I am questioning this is that prior to 1984 the language of Title 31 used the term "executive department or independent establishment" in place of "agency." Title 5 does define an executive department or independent establishment and FAR defines a Federal agency or Executive agency, but I can not find a definition of "agency" anywhere. The reason given for this change in 1984 was for clarity. Now it's clear as mud.

Can you provide a citation as to how you arrived at your conclusion "the Economy Act only covers federal agencies"?

By formerfed on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 04:00 pm:

40 USC 472 defines "executive agency" as "...any executive department or independent establishment in the executive branch of the government including wholly owned government corporations". It also defines Federal agency as "any executive agency or any other establishment in the legislative or judicialbranch of the Government..."

31 USC 101 defines agency as "a department, agency, or intrumentality of the United States Govenment"

Hope this helps

By Bob Antonio on Thursday, January 24, 2002 - 04:28 pm:

Here is the Economy Act from LII.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/31/1535.html

It provides some discussion of terms under the "Notes" caption to the right of the law.

By Dave Barnett on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 10:38 am:

Now I stick my neck out, why not just do a regular contract with the state (I'm assuming this is a sole source type of acquisition justified IAW FAR part 6). FAR 52.204-3, TIN Identification, provides for a governmental organization under "type of entity".

Actually this whole scenario seems highly unlikely, I'm wondering where did this state get this data from, did the state develop this data using federal funds (block grant, title something funding, etc) in which case the federales could assert some intellectual property rights. And what kind of data would a state have that was of use only to the feds and not for public domain dissemination/public policy formation. E.g., we ask states for data on public schools (how many kids eat cafeteria lunches, etc) and this is used in developing the education budget, setting priorities, etc. We get this data as part of the educational grant program. We do the same for highway funds, airport funding, environmental matters, and so on