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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle F--Provisions Relating to Commercial Items

P. L. 114-

House Conference Report. 114-840

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may not enter into a contract or agreement under the pilot program for an amount in excess of $100,000,000 without a written determination from the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology or the relevant service acquisition executive of the efficacy of the effort to meet mission needs of the Department of Defense or the relevant military department.

(2) FIXED-PRICE REQUIREMENT.—Contracts or agreements entered into under the program shall be fixed-price, including fixed-price incentive fee contracts.

(3) TREATMENT AS COMMERCIAL ITEMS.—Notwithstanding section 2376(1) of title 10, United States Code, items, technologies, and services acquired under the pilot program shall be treated as commercial items.

(d) Guidance.—Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue guidance for the implementation of the pilot program under this section within the Department of Defense. Such guidance shall be issued in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and shall be posted for access by the public.

(e) Congressional Notification Required.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days after the award of a contract for an amount exceeding $100,000,000 using the authority in subsection (a), the Secretary of Defense shall notify the congressional defense committees of such award.

(2) ELEMENTS.—Notice of an award under paragraph (1) shall include the following:

(A) Description of the innovative commercial item, technology, or service acquired.

(B) Description of the requirement, capability gap, or potential technological advancement with respect to which the innovative commercial item, technology, or service acquired provides a solution or a potential new capability.

(C) Amount of the contract awarded.

(D) Identification of contractor awarded the contract.

(f) Definition.—In this section, the term “innovative” means—

(1) any technology, process, or method, including research and development, that is new as of the date of submission of a proposal; or

(2) any application that is new as of the date of submission of a proposal of a technology, process, or method existing as of such date.

(g) Sunset.—The authority to enter into contracts under the pilot program shall expire on September 30, 2022.

The Senate bill contained a provision (sec. 868) that would grant the Secretary of Defense the authority to carry out a pilot program to acquire innovative commercial items on a fixed-price basis using general solicitation competitive procedures and a peer review of such proposals.

The House amendment contained no similar provision.

The House recedes with an amendment that would require the Secretary of Defense to issue public guidance for the implementation of the pilot provision, requires congressional notification for the award of any contract exceeding $100.0 million using the authority, and modifies the definition of “innovative”.