Sec. 6. Addressing barriers to entry in Federal contracting
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Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue guidance, including examples and templates where appropriate, on— when a wider range of projects, such as commercial or non-government, as well as Government projects, should be accepted as relevant past performance, in order to have access to a wider pool of eligible firms with capability to perform a requirement, such as a requirement without much precedent; and use of alternative evaluation methods that may be appropriate for a requirement without much precedent.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall convene a working group or an appropriate existing body (in this section referred to as the working group ), to make recommendations to reduce barriers to entry for entities seeking to do business with the Federal Government. The working group convened under paragraph
(1)shall be chaired by the Administrator or a designee of the Administrator and include, at a minimum, representatives from: The General Services Administration. The Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Commerce. The Department of Defense. The Department of Health and Human Services. The Small Business Administration. Any other agencies or organizations, including national security agencies, determined appropriate by the Administrator. The working group shall obtain input from the public, including from the Procurement Technical Assistance Center
(PTAC)network and from other industry representatives, on ways in which Federal procurement policies and regulations are obsolete, overly burdensome or restrictive, and serve to create barriers to participation in Federal contracting or unnecessarily increase bid and proposal costs. The working group shall consider the input obtained under paragraph
(3)and any other information determined to be appropriate by the Administrator to identify legislative, regulatory, and other actions to foster more resilient supply chains, provide access to a wider pool of qualified vendors, and increase opportunities for participation of new, small, and nontraditional businesses in the procurement process, in addition to addressing other barriers. Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall, in consultation with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, the working group, and other agencies as appropriate, implement the regulatory and other non-legislative actions identified under paragraph
(4)to address barriers to entry for entities seeking to participate in Federal Government procurement. Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall brief the relevant committees of Congress on the legislative actions identified under paragraph (4), and the actions implemented under paragraph (5). Section 1502(b)(1) of title 41, United States Code, is amended— in subparagraph
(B)by striking the amount set forth in section 3702(a)(1)(A) of title 10 as the amount is adjusted in accordance with applicable requirements of law and inserting $15,000,000 ; and in subparagraph (C)— in clause (ii), by striking the semicolon and inserting ; or ; in clause (iii), by striking ; or and inserting a period; and by striking clause (iv).