NDAA for Fiscal Year 2012

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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS Subtitle F—Industrial Base Matters
P. L. 114-	House Conference Report. 114-270
SEC. 870. Additional duties of the Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. Section 15(k) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(k)) is amended— (1) in paragraph (15), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon; (2) in paragraph (16)(C), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and (3) by inserting after paragraph (16) the following new paragraph: “(17) shall, when notified by a small business concern prior to the award of a contract that the small business concern believes that a solicitation, request for proposal, or request for quotation unduly restricts the ability of the small business concern to compete for the award— “(A) submit the notice of the small business concern to the contracting officer and, if necessary, recommend ways in which the solicitation, request for proposal, or request for quotation may be altered to increase the opportunity for competition; “(B) inform the advocate for competition of such agency (as established under section 1705 of title 41, United States Code, or section 2318 of title 10, United States Code) of such notice; and “(C) ensure that the small business concern is aware of other resources and processes available to address unduly restrictive provisions in a solicitation, request for proposal, or request for quotation, even if such resources and processes are provided by such agency, the Administration, the Comptroller General, or a procurement technical assistance program established under chapter 142 of title 10, United States Code.”.	Additional duties of the Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (sec. 870) The Senate amendment contained a provision (sec. 885) that would require the small business offices in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military departments to serve as intermediaries between small businesses and contracting officials prior to the award of contracts in cases where a small business prospective contractor notifies the small business office that it has reason to believe that the contracting process has been modified to preclude a small business from bidding on the contract or would give another contractor an unfair competitive advantage. The House bill contained no similar provision. The House recedes with an amendment that would amend section 15(k) of the Small Business Act (title 15, United States Code, section 644) to describe the responsibilities of federal agency Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization offices in cases where a small business concern prior to the award of a contract believes that a solicitation, request for proposal, or request for quotation might unduly restrict the ability of the small business concern to compete for the award. There are over 500 Senate amendments to the Senate amendment amending H. R. 1735. The Senate's amendment process lasted several weeks. I don't know if it is possible to obtain anything meaningful by trying to find this needle in the Senate's legislative haystack.