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

Subtitle F--Provisions Relating to Commercial Items

P. L. 114-

House Conference Report. 114-840

(1) IN GENERAL.—The head of an agency may carry out a pilot program, to be known as a “commercial solutions opening pilot program”, under which innovative commercial items may be acquired through a competitive selection of proposals resulting from a general solicitation and the peer review of such proposals.

(2) HEAD OF AN AGENCY.—In this section, the term “head of an agency” means the following:

(A) The Secretary of Homeland Security.

(B) The Administrator of General Services.

(3) APPLICABILITY OF SECTION.—This section applies to the following agencies:

(A) The Department of Homeland Security.

(B) The General Services Administration.

(b) Treatment As Competitive Procedures.—Use of general solicitation competitive procedures for the pilot program under subsection (a) shall be considered, in the case of the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration, to be use of competitive procedures for purposes of division C of title 41, United States Code (as defined in section 152 of such title).

(c) Limitation.—The head of an agency may not enter into a contract under the pilot program for an amount in excess of $10,000,000.

(d) Guidance.—The head of an agency shall issue guidance for the implementation of the pilot program under this section within that agency. Such guidance shall be issued in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget and shall be posted for access by the public.

(e) Report Required.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the head of an agency shall submit to the congressional committees specified in paragraph (3) a report on the activities the agency carried out under the pilot program.

(2) ELEMENTS OF REPORT.—Each report under this subsection shall include the following:

(A) An assessment of the impact of the pilot program on competition.

(B) A comparison of acquisition timelines for—

(i) procurements made using the pilot program; and

(ii) procurements made using other competitive procedures that do not use general solicitations.

(C) A recommendation on whether the authority for the pilot program should be made permanent.

(3) SPECIFIED CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The congressional committees specified in this paragraph are the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives.

(f) Innovative Defined.—In this section, the term “innovative” means—

(1) any new technology, process, or method, including research and development; or

(2) any new application of an existing technology, process, or method.

(g) Termination.—The authority to enter into a contract under a pilot program under this section terminates on September 30, 2022.

 

The House amendment contained a provision (sec. 825) that would allow the Secretary of Defense to carry out a pilot program under which innovative commercial items may be acquired through a competitive selection of proposals, resulting from a general solicitation and the peer review of such proposals.

The Senate bill contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would change the authority to apply to the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration, add a total annual limitation to the authority, reduce the reporting required to the congressional committees, modifies the definition of “innovative”, and extends the termination date of the authority to September 30, 2022.