S.Amdt. 4422

SA 4422. Mr. TESTER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 5297, to create the Small Business Lending Fund Program to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to make capital investments in eligible institutions in order to increase the availability of credit for small businesses, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page _, between lines _ and _, insert the following:

SEC. __. GAO REPORT ON POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO ENTRY IN FEDERAL CONTRACTING.

(a) Covered Agency.--In this section, the term “covered agency” means--

(1) the General Services Administration;

(2) the Army Corps of Engineers; and

(3) the Department of Homeland Security.

(b) Study.--The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study examining selected instances in which covered agencies have entered into contracts using previous experience or past performance under Federal contracts as source selection evaluation criteria.

(c) Report.--

(1) In general.--Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to Congress a report on the study conducted under subsection (b).

(2) Content.--The report required under paragraph (1) shall include the following:

(A) A description of the circumstances under which covered agencies entered into contracts using previous experience or past performance under Federal contracts as source selection evaluation criteria.

(B) A description of the weights assigned to these evaluation factors as compared to all other evaluation factors, including cost.

(C) An assessment of whether the use of previous experience or past performance as evaluation criteria is more or less prevalent depending on the type of item or service the agency acquires.

(D) The views of agency officials, acquisition experts, and affected stakeholders on the benefits and challenges of using previous experience or past performance as evaluation criteria, including the impact on small business concerns.

(3) Contracts covered.--The report required under paragraph (1) shall include information on the awarding of contracts using full and open competition and other types of competitive procedures.