[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 21 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 21

To ensure efficiency and fairness in the awarding of Federal contracts 
      in connection with natural disaster reconstruction efforts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 6, 2015

  Mr. Vitter introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure efficiency and fairness in the awarding of Federal contracts 
      in connection with natural disaster reconstruction efforts.

    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 ``Local Disaster Contracting Fairness 
Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``executive agency'' has the meaning given 
        that term in section 133 of title 41, United States Code;
            (2) the term ``local subcontractor'' means, with respect to 
        a contract, a subcontractor who has a principal place of 
        business or regularly conducts operations in the area in which 
        work is to be performed under the contract by the 
        subcontractor; and
            (3) the term ``natural disaster reconstruction efforts'' 
        means reconstruction efforts undertaken in an area for which 
        the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 
        of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
        Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170).

SEC. 3. FEDERAL CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) In General.--The head of an executive agency may not enter into 
an agreement for debris removal or demolition services in connection 
with natural disaster reconstruction efforts unless the agreement 
specifies that--
            (1) all of the work under the contract will be performed by 
        the prime contractor or 1 or more subcontractors at 1 tier 
        under the contract;
            (2) any work performed under the contract by subcontractors 
        will be performed by local subcontractors, except to the extent 
        that local subcontractors are not available to perform such 
        work;
            (3) the prime contractor will act as the project manager or 
        construction manager for the contract; and
            (4) the prime contractor--
                    (A) has primary responsibility for managing all 
                work under the contract; and
                    (B) will be paid a certain percentage of the 
                overall value of the contract as sole compensation for 
                assuming the risk associated with such responsibility.
    (b) Preference for Subcontractors Affected by Natural Disasters.--
In entering into an agreement for debris removal or demolition services 
in connection with natural disaster reconstruction efforts, the head of 
an executive agency shall give a preference in the source selection 
process to each offeror who certifies that any work that is to be 
performed under the contract by subcontractors will be performed by 
local subcontractors.

SEC. 4. APPLICABILITY.

    The requirements under section 3 shall apply to agreements entered 
into on or after the date of enactment of this Act.
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