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

Subtitle A—Acquisition Policy and Management.

P. L. 116-92

House Conference Report 116-333

(a) Use of Qualified Apprentices by Military Construction Contractors.--

(1) In general.--Subchapter III of chapter 169 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

``Sec. 2870. Use of qualified apprentices by military construction
contractors

``(a) Certification Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall require each offeror for a contract for a military construction project to certify to the Secretary that, if awarded such a contract, the offeror will--

``(1) establish a goal that not less than 20 percent of the total workforce employed in the performance of such a contract are qualified apprentices; and

``(2) make a good faith effort to meet or exceed such goal.

``(b) Incentives.--The Secretary of Defense shall develop incentives for offerors for a contract for military construction projects to meet or exceed the goal described in subsection (a).

``(c) Consideration of Use of Qualified Apprentices.--The Secretary of Defense shall revise the Department of Defense Supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require that the system used by the Federal Government to monitor or record contractor past performance includes an analysis of whether the contractor has made a good faith effort to meet or exceed the goal described in subsection (a), including consideration of the actual number of qualified apprentices used by the contractor on the contract, as part of the past performance rating of such contractor.

``(d) Qualified Apprentice Defined.--In this section, the term `qualified apprentice' means an employee participating in an apprenticeship program that is--

``(1) registered with the Office of Apprenticeship of the Employment Training Administration of the Department of Labor pursuant to the Act of August 16, 1937 (popularly known as the `National Apprenticeship Act'; 29 U.S.C. 50 et seq.);

``(2) registered with a State apprenticeship agency recognized by such Office of Apprenticeship pursuant to such Act; or

``(3) determined to be a high-quality apprenticeship program by industry and the Secretary of Labor.''.

(2) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of subchapter III of chapter 169 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``2870. Use of qualified apprentices by military construction
contractors.''.

(b) Applicability.--The amendments made by this section shall apply
with respect to contracts awarded on or after the date that is 180 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act.

The House amendment contained a provision (sec. 844) that would require the Secretary of Defense to revise the Defense Supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require a system be used to monitor or record contractor past performance of the contractor making a good faith effort to meet or exceed the apprenticeship employment goal of 20 percent. This section would also require the Secretary of Defense to develop an apprenticeship workforce incentive program to encourage contractors to meet the 20 percent goal of employing certified and skilled workers who have completed State-mandated, federally funded programs in the relative career fields and certify to good faith effort to achieve the goal. This section would also require the Secretary of Defense to include an evaluation of whether the contractor meets this goal in the contractor past performance rating system.

The Senate bill contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would allow the Secretary of Defense to also consider certain high-quality industry recognized apprenticeship programs when evaluating contractor performance.

The conferees note that the Department of Labor has issued a proposed rule that would establish a process for recognizing Standards Recognition Entities, which will in turn recognize Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs. The conferees encourage the Secretary of Defense to work with the Department of Labor as the proposed rule takes effect to ensure any apprenticeship programs recognized by the Department of Defense are of sufficient quality.