[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1219 Received in Senate (RDS)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 1219


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 3, 1999

                                Received

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
 To amend the Miller Act, relating to payment protections for persons 
    providing labor and materials for Federal construction projects.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Construction Industry Payment 
Protection Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE MILLER ACT.

    (a) Enhancement of Payment Bond Protection.--Subsection (a)(2) of 
the first section of the Miller Act (40 U.S.C. 270a(a)(2)) is amended 
by striking the second, third, and fourth sentences and inserting in 
lieu thereof the following: ``The amount of the payment bond shall be 
equal to the total amount payable by the terms of the contract unless 
the contracting officer awarding the contract makes a written 
determination supported by specific findings that a payment bond in 
that amount is impractical, in which case the amount of the payment 
bond shall be set by the contracting officer. In no case shall the 
amount of the payment bond be less than the amount of the performance 
bond.''.
    (b) Modernization of Delivery of Notice.--Section 2(a) of the 
Miller Act (40 U.S.C. 270b(a)) is amended in the last sentence by 
striking ``mailing the same by registered mail, postage prepaid, in an 
envelope addressed'' and inserting ``any means which provides written, 
third-party verification of delivery.''.
    (c) Nonwaiver of Rights.--The second section of the Miller Act (40 
U.S.C. 270b) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(c) Any waiver of the right to sue on the payment bond required 
by this Act shall be void unless it is in writing, signed by the person 
whose right is waived, and executed after such person has first 
furnished labor or material for use in the performance of the 
contract.''.

SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE PROCUREMENT 
              REGULATIONS.

    (a) Proposed Regulations.--Proposed revisions to the Government-
wide Federal Acquisition Regulation to implement the amendments made by 
this Act shall be published not later than 120 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act and provide not less than 60 days for public 
comment.
    (b) Final Regulations.--Final regulations shall be published not 
less than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and 
shall be effective on the date that is 30 days after the date of 
publication.

            Passed the House of Representatives August 2, 1999.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.

                            By Martha C. Morrison,

                                                          Deputy Clerk.