Articles
National Security Should Be Bipartisan
Washington,
March 1, 2024
"National Security Should Be Bipartisan"
By Congressman Byron Donalds Published in "Life in Naples Magazine" – March 2024 On Monday, January 29th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed my bill, H.R. 5528 – The Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act, with a unanimous and bipartisan vote of 397-0. As a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, ensuring proper governance and efficiency in federal operations are paramount concerns of mine. Federal procurement processes—although often overlooked—are critical to the operation of our government and necessitate comprehensive assessment. Simply put, affordability considerations and associated national security risks of procurement procedures must be thoroughly evaluated. This bill specifically empowers the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget to evaluate the procurement activities of each federal agency to determine whether the “Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” (LPTA) federal procurement standard has created any national security risks. This source selection process, also known as Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.101-2, states that federal contracts must be awarded to vendors that meet the technical requirements of the stated need at the lowest price available. In summary, the lowest price available for a federal contract is prioritized above all other considerations. No later than 180 days (six months) after enactment of this legislation, the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget must submit a report on the results of this evaluation. The report will then be sent to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for further consideration and deliberation. I first proposed the Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act on September 18th and per House procedure, the bill was referred to committee. In the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, members on both sides of the aisle assessed the legislation and the bill was brought up for a vote at the committee’s mark-up session on September 20th. In a mark-up session, members’ proposals are presented in detail to the full committee. Members of the committee may either amend the proposal, vote to accept the proposal, or vote to reject the proposal. If the proposal is accepted by a majority vote of the committee’s membership, the proposal will advance to the floor of the House of Representatives. The Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act received a unanimous vote of 43-0 in committee and advanced to the floor of the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support. This bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and was also strongly supported by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Raskin stated, “since our committee reported this bill last September, I appreciate that Mr. Donalds and the Majority sought and incorporated feedback from the administration and earned bipartisan support from Mr. Connolly–a long-time expert in federal operations. With these updates I am happy to lend my full support to this legislation.” National security should be bipartisan. The Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act is my 13th piece of legislation that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives during the 118th Congress and I am proud to receive the unanimous support of my colleagues on this proposal. I look forward to the introduction and successful passage of this commonsense and solutions-focused bill in the U.S. Senate, and its subsequent presentation to President Biden for final signature. |