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Title XIV—Services Acquisition Reform

The Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 (SARA)

Public Law 108-136

House Conference Report 108-354

SEC. 1442. PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF NONCOMPETITIVE CONTRACTING FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN IRAQ.

(a) DISCLOSURE REQUIRED-

(1) PUBLICATION AND PUBLIC AVAILABILITY- The head of an executive agency of the United States that enters into a contract for the repair, maintenance, or construction of infrastructure in Iraq without full and open competition shall publish in the Federal Register or Commerce Business Daily and otherwise make available to the public, not later than 30 days after the date on which the contract is entered into, the following information:

(A) The amount of the contract.

(B) A brief description of the scope of the contract.

(C) A discussion of how the executive agency identified, and solicited offers from, potential contractors to perform the contract, together with a list of the potential contractors that were issued solicitations for the offers.

(D) The justification and approval documents on which was based the determination to use procedures other than procedures that provide for full and open competition.

(2) INAPPLICABILITY TO CONTRACTS AFTER FISCAL YEAR 2005- Paragraph (1) does not apply to a contract entered into after September 30, 2005.

(b) CLASSIFIED INFORMATION-

(1) AUTHORITY TO WITHHOLD- The head of an executive agency may--

(A) withhold from publication and disclosure under subsection (a) any document that is classified for restricted access in accordance with an Executive order in the interest of national defense or foreign policy; and

(B) redact any part so classified that is in a document not so classified before publication and disclosure of the document under subsection (a).

(2) AVAILABILITY TO CONGRESS- In any case in which the head of an executive agency withholds information under paragraph (1), the head of such executive agency shall make available an unredacted version of the document containing that information to the chairman and ranking member of each of the following committees of Congress:

(A) The Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives.

(B) The Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and House of Representatives.

(C) Each committee that the head of the executive agency determines has legislative jurisdiction for the operations of such department or agency to which the information relates.

(c) FISCAL YEAR 2003 CONTRACTS- This section shall apply to contracts entered into on or after October 1, 2002, except that, in the case of a contract entered into before the date of the enactment of this Act, subsection (a) shall be applied as if the contract had been entered into on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(d) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER DISCLOSURE LAWS- Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting obligations to disclose United States Government information under any other provision of law.

(e) DEFINITIONS- In this section, the terms `executive agency' and `full and open competition' have the meanings given such terms in section 4 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403).

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 1455) that would require agencies to report on the justification for awarding a contract for the reconstruction of infrastructure in Iraq without full and open competition.

The Senate amendment contained a similar provision (sec. 1209).

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would limit the reporting requirement to contracts entered into on or before September 30, 2005.

House Report 108-117, Part 1

The section would require an agency to publish, within 30 days of award, information regarding a contract for repair, maintenance, or construction of infrastructure in Iraq that was awarded by the agency without full and open competition.