WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced legislation to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse within defense contracting. The bill would update current Department of Defense (DoD) contracting guidelines and require the agency to report when contractors fail to provide data to justify contract costs, noting this failure in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), a government-wide database on contractor performance. Currently, contractors face no punishment or pressure to provide complete cost information to the DoD partially due to a lack of competitiveness in the market. The bill will increase transparency and compliance by incentivizing contractors to provide DoD the data it needs to ensure contract prices are fair.
“Current Department of Defense contracting standards create the opportunity for companies to withhold cost data from the agency without the risk of being denied future contracts,” said Senator Peters. “My legislation will increase transparency and compliance across Department of Defense contracting by providing the agency with more tools to secure fair contract prices and put pressure on companies to provide the requested data.”
Annual DoD reports to Congress between 2021 and 2023 showed a rise in contractors failing to provide cost and pricing data without facing consequences, which highlighted a need to reform how DoD captures performance and contractor integrity information. DoD awards around $200 billion in contracts every year without competition, meaning they often must rely on data from contractors to determine if prices are reasonable. This bill will discourage companies that contract with DoD from denying cost data requested by the agency by putting companies on notice that failure to comply will be included in their official performance records and may impact their ability to obtain future contracts.
The Denial Reporting in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System Act would require contracting officers to report denials in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) in the System for Award Management (SAM).
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