Prior to Thanksgiving, the president signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2016 (NDAA Bill), which includes several AGC-backed federal procurement reform provisions that will help prevent individual surety fraud, allow joint ventures to submit individual businesses’ relevant past performance evaluations as part of their proposals—not merely the relevant past performance of the joint venture itself—and fix a recent court decision that would have required small business construction contractors to purchase all their materials and supplies from other small businesses.

AGC Federal Procurement Priorities to Become Law Both the House (last week) and Senate (this week) overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2016 (NDAA Bill), a bill the president vetoed just two weeks ago. The president is expected to sign the bill into law as a result of the bipartisan budget agreement reached two weeks ago. Compared to the vetoed version of the bill, this NDAA bill has slightly lower levels of spending for Department of Defense programs.

Save $100 on Registration Fee Register today for the 2016 AGC Federal Contractors Conference (FEDCON) and save $100 off the registration fee. FEDCON is the premier conference for federal construction contractors to discuss the latest projects, policies and contracting issues facing the industry with federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facility Engineering Command, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of State, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Bureau of Reclamation.

Recently, AGC sent letters opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate posted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest (NAVFAC) and the General Services Administration Mid-Atlantic Region (GSA). The letters address the possible use of mandatory PLAs involving the construction of the Special Operations Forces Logistics Support Unit One Operations Facility at the Navy’s Silver Strand Training Complex in Imperial Beach, California and a Measurement Systems Laboratory at the NASA Langley Research Center located in Hampton, Virginia.

The House and Senate approved the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, which includes several AGC-supported procurement reforms. Those reforms:

Positive Change Stemming from AGC Legislative Action The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released a proposed rule that would allow prime contractors to count lower-tier, small business subcontracts towards their small business subcontracting goals. Currently, prime contractors can only take credit for their small business subcontracts at the first tier. This proposed rule will allow prime contractors to take credit for such subcontracts—above $650,000—at any tier to meet such goals.

AGC Legislative Success Begins Implementation Process The FAR Council released a proposed rule that would help limit the number of short-listed design-build teams to no more than five during a two-step design-build procurement through federal agencies. The proposed rule takes a two-pronged approach to implementing this policy. First, for contracts at or below $4 million, contracting officers will have to document their reasons for including more than five teams on the short-list. Second, for contracts above $4 million, contracting officers will not only have to provide such documentation to include more than five teams, but also have approval from the head of the contracting agency—i.e., Chief of Engineers at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—to include more than five teams on the short-list.

Prohibits Reverse Auctions for Construction Services Contracts This week, Sens. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced and passed legislation out of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee that would help prohibit federal agencies from conducting reverse auctions for construction services contracts. A reverse auction is a procurement process through which contractors bid down price—and can see others’ bids—for a good or service contract in real time. Many federal agencies use reverse auctions to procure non-variable commodities like pens and paper. However, several federal agencies also use reverse auctions to procure construction services, which are inherently variable based on the project, site location and construction professionals.

On Sept. 10, AGC participated in a business community roundtable discussion on the “Fair Pay and Safe Work Places” Executive Order– commonly referred to as the Blacklisting Executive Order – with Republican members of the House Small Business Committee. AGC General Counsel Mike Kennedy discussed the myriad legal and practical difficulties this executive order will present construction contractors when bidding and performing work on federal contracts.

Federal Contractors Again the Focus of Executive Action On Labor Day, President Obama signed an executive order that would mandate direct-federal prime contractors and subcontractors to issue paid sick leave. The executive order mandates paid sick leave at a rate of no less than 1 hour earned for every 30 hours worked, setting a minimum of 56 hours a year of paid sick leave—about seven days—covering not only employee illness, but also caring for a child, parent, spouse, domestic partner “or any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.”