SOLICITATION, EVALUATION, AND AWARD.

SEC. 1081. SOLICITATION, EVALUATION, AND AWARD. (a) Content of Solicitation.— Subsection (b) of section 303A of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 253a) is amended— (1) in paragraph (1)— (A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows: “(A) all significant factors and significant subfactors which the executive agency reasonably expects to consider in evaluating sealed bids (including price) or competitive proposals (including cost or price, cost-related or price- related factors and subfactors, and noncostrelated or nonprice-related factors and subfactors); and”; and (B) in subparagraph (B), by inserting “and subfactors” after “factors”; and (2) in paragraph (2)(B), by amending clause (i) to read as follows: “(i) either a statement that the proposals are intended to be evaluated with, and award made after, discussions with the offerors, or a statement that the proposals are intended to be evaluated, and award made, without discussions with the offerors (other than discussions conducted for the purpose of minor clarification) unless discussions are determined to be necessary; and”. (b) Evaluation Factors.— Such section is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsections: “(c) (1) In prescribing the evaluation factors to be included in each solicitation for competitive proposals, an executive agency— “(A) shall clearly establish the relative importance assigned to the evaluation factors and subfactors, including the quality of the product or services to be provided (including technical capability, management capability, prior experience, and past performance of the offeror); “(B) shall include cost or price to the Federal Government as an evaluation factor that must be considered in the evaluation of proposals; and “(C) snail disclose to offerors whether all evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are— “(i) significantly more important than cost or price; “(ii) approximately equal in importance to cost or price; or 108 STAT. 3267 “(iii) significantly less important than cost or price. “(2) The regulations implementing subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) may not define the terms ‘significantly more important’ and ‘significantly less important’ as specific numeric weights that would be applied uniformly to all solicitations or a class of solicitations. “(d) Nothing in this section prohibits an executive agency from— “(1) providing additional information in a solicitation, including numeric weights for all evaluation factors and subfactors on a case-by-case basis; or “(2) stating in a solicitation that award will be made to the offeror that meets the solicitation’s mandatory requirements at the lowest cost or price.”. (c) Evaluation and Award.— Section 303B of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 253b) is amended— (1) in subsection (a), by inserting “, and award a contract,” after “competitive proposals”; (2) in subsection (c), by inserting “in accordance with subsection (a)” in the second sentence after “shall evaluate the bids”; and (3) in subsection (d)— (A) by striking out paragraph (1) and inserting in lieu thereof the following: “(1) An executive agency shall evaluate competitive proposals in accordance with subsection (a) and may award a contract— “(A) after discussions with the offerors, provided that written or oral discussions have been conducted with all responsible offerors who submit proposals within the competitive range; or “(B) based on the proposals received and without discussions with the offerors (other than discussions conducted for the purpose of minor clarification), if, as required by section 303A(b)(2)(B)(i), the solicitation included a statement that proposals are intended to be evaluated, and award made, without discussions, unless discussions are determined to be necessary.”; (B) by striking out paragraphs (2) and (3) and by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (2); and (C) in paragraph (2), as redesignated by subparagraph (B), by inserting “cost or” before “price” in the first sentence.