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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. 1433. CLARIFICATION OF COMMERCIAL SERVICES DEFINITION.

Section 4 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403) is amended in paragraph (12)(F) by inserting `or specific outcomes to be achieved' after `performed'.

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 1443) that would amend section 4 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Act [41 U.S.C. 403(12)] by modifying the criteria applied to a commercial service purchased under the procedures for the purchase of a commercial item.

The Senate amendment contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would modify the definition of commercial services to conform the language to terms used in section 41 of the OFPP Act as added by section 1431 of this bill.

House Report 108-117, Part 1

The section would amend section 4 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403 (12)) (OFPP Act) to clarify the definition of commercial item to recognize the changing dynamics of the commercial marketplace for services. The new definition would eliminate the antiquated notion of an established catalogue price, but retain the requirement that commercial services have an established market price. Further and most important, the definition now recognizes that services that are sold on the basis of specific outcomes in addition to those for specific tasks fit with the OFPP Act definition of commercial services. Thus, benefits that attach to commercial items will now be available not just for services sold in the marketplace for specific tasks such as grass cutting but for more sophisticated services such as management consulting services use to improve agency processes.