How To Use the NDAA Pages

Back to NDAA Contents

TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle C — Amendments To General Contracting Authorities, Procedures, And Limitations

P. L. 114-

House Conference Report. 114-840

(1) the Department of Defense 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 Department of Defense 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 Department;

(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 Department of Defense 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 December 1, 2017, and annually thereafter for three years, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the number of instances in which lowest price technically acceptable source selection criteria is used for a contract exceeding $10,000,000, 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.

The Senate bill contained a provision (sec. 825) that would require the Department of Defense to revise the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to limit the use of lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) source selection criteria in circumstances that would potentially deny the Department the benefits of cost and technical tradeoffs in the source selection process. The Department would be required to only use LPTA criteria in specified circumstances and avoid them to the maximum extent practicable for the procurement of knowledge-based professional services such as information technology services.

The House amendment contained a similar provision (sec. 847).

The House recedes with an amendment that would require justification of LPTA evaluation methodologies in each contract file, require determination that lowest price reflects full life-cycle costs, and expand restrictions on the use of LPTA evaluation methodologies to include advanced electronic testing and knowledge-based, training, or logistics services in overseas contingency operations. The amendment would also limit LPTA reporting to only contracts that exceed $10.0 million.