[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1382 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1382

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs, in awarding a contract for the procurement of goods 
  or services, to give a preference to offerors that employ veterans.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 2015

Miss Rice of New York (for herself, Mr. Cook, Mr. Takano, Mr. Abraham, 
 Ms. Kuster, and Mrs. Radewagen) introduced the following bill; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs, in awarding a contract for the procurement of goods 
  or services, to give a preference to offerors that employ veterans.

    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 ``Boosting Rates of American Veteran 
Employment Act'' or the ``BRAVE Act''.

SEC. 2. PREFERENCE FOR OFFERORS EMPLOYING VETERANS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 81 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding after section 8128 the following new 
section:
``Sec. 8129. Preference for offerors employing veterans
    ``(a) Preference.--In awarding a contract for the procurement of 
goods or services, the Secretary may give a preference to offerors that 
employ veterans. The Secretary shall determine such preference based on 
the percentage of the employees of the offeror who are veterans.
    ``(b) Enforcement Penalties for Misrepresentation.--(1) Any offeror 
that is determined by the Secretary to have willfully and intentionally 
misrepresented the veteran status of the employees of the offeror for 
purposes of subsection (a) shall be debarred from contracting with the 
Department for a period of not less than five years.
    ``(2) In the case of a debarment under paragraph (1), the Secretary 
shall commence debarment action against the offeror by not later than 
30 days after determining that the offeror willfully and intentionally 
misrepresented the veteran status of the employees of the offeror as 
described in paragraph (1) and shall complete debarment actions against 
such offeror by not later than 90 days after such determination.
    ``(3) The debarment of an offeror under paragraph (1) includes the 
debarment of all principals in the offeror for a period of not less 
than five years.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
8128 the following new item:

``8129. Preference for offerors employing veterans.''.
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