Construction Consensus Procurement Improvement Act of 2017

Construction Consensus Procurement Improvement Act of 2017

(Sec. 3) This bill modifies the design-build selection procedures used by federal agencies soliciting offers to enter into civilian contracts for the design and construction of a public building, facility, or work. Two-phase selection procedures (i.e., submission of qualifications and then the submission of price and technical proposals in response to a request for proposal) must be used if a contracting officer determines that a project has a value of $3 million or greater. But for contracts valued at less than $3 million, the contracting officer makes the same determination under current law as to whether the use of two-phase selection procedures is appropriate if the officer anticipates at least three offers for the contract.

Federal agencies must report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), each year over a five-year period, on each instance where the agency awarded a design-build contract in which: (1) more than five finalists were selected for phase-two requests for proposals, or (2) the contract or order was awarded without using two-phase selection procedures. The OMB must compile and submit such reports to the Government Accountability Office, which must issue a report analyzing such reports and agency compliance with design-build contract procedures.

(Sec. 4) The Federal Acquisition Regulation shall be amended to prohibit the use of reverse auctions as part of the two-phase selection procedures for awarding contracts for construction and design services. A "reverse auction," with respect to any procurement by an executive agency, is: (1) a real-time auction conducted through an electronic medium among at least two offerors who compete by submitting bids for a supply or service contract, or a delivery order, task order, or purchase order under the contract, with the ability to submit revised lower bids before the closing of the auction; and (2) the award of the contract, delivery order, task order, or purchase order to the offeror based on the price obtained through the auction process.