[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 958 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 958

 To amend the Small Business Act to provide for team and joint venture 
                     offers for certain contracts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 15, 2015

  Mr. Enzi (for himself and Mr. Casey) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business 
                          and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Small Business Act to provide for team and joint venture 
                     offers for certain contracts.

    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 ``Small Business Fairness Act''.

SEC. 2. JOINT VENTURING AND TEAMING.

    (a) Joint Venture Offers for Bundled or Consolidated Contracts.--
Section 15(e)(4) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(e)(4)) is 
amended to read as follows:
            ``(4) Contract teaming.--
                    ``(A) In general.--In the case of a solicitation of 
                offers for a bundled or consolidated contract that is 
                issued by the head of an agency, a small business 
                concern may submit an offer that provides for use of a 
                particular team of subcontractors or a joint venture of 
                small business concerns for the performance of the 
                contract.
                    ``(B) Evaluation of offers.--The head of an agency 
                shall evaluate the offer of a team or a joint venture 
                of small business concerns submitted under subparagraph 
                (A) in the same manner as other offers, with due 
                consideration to the capabilities of all of the 
                proposed subcontractors or members of the joint 
                venture.
                            ``(i) Teams.--When evaluating an offer of a 
                        small business prime contractor that includes a 
                        proposed team of subcontractors, the head of 
                        the agency shall consider the capabilities and 
                        past performance of each first tier 
                        subcontractor that is part of the team as the 
                        capabilities and past performance of the team.
                            ``(ii) Joint ventures.--When evaluating an 
                        offer of a joint venture of small business 
                        concerns, if the joint venture does not have 
                        sufficient capabilities or past performance to 
                        be considered for award of a contract 
                        opportunity, the head of the agency shall 
                        consider the capabilities and past performance 
                        of each member of the joint venture as the 
                        capabilities and past performance of the joint 
                        venture.
                    ``(C) Status as a small business concern.--
                Participation of a small business concern in a team or 
                a joint venture under this paragraph shall not affect 
                the status of that concern as a small business concern 
                with respect to the performance of a contract described 
                in subparagraph (A).''.
    (b) Team and Joint Venture Offers for Multiple Award Contracts.--
Section 15(q)(1) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(q)(1)) is 
amended--
            (1) in the heading, by inserting ``and joint venture'' 
        before ``requirements'';
            (2) by striking ``Each Federal agency'' and inserting the 
        following:
                    ``(A) In general.--Each Federal agency''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) Teams.--When evaluating an offer of a small 
                business prime contractor that includes a proposed team 
                of subcontractors for any multiple award contract above 
                the substantial bundling threshold of the Federal 
                agency, the head of the Federal agency shall consider 
                the capabilities and past performance of each first 
                tier subcontractor that is part of the team as the 
                capabilities and past performance of the offeror.
                    ``(C) Joint ventures.--When evaluating an offer of 
                a joint venture of small business concerns for any 
                multiple award contract above the substantial bundling 
                threshold of the Federal agency, if the joint venture 
                does not have sufficient capabilities or past 
                performance to be considered for award of a contract 
                opportunity, the head of the Federal agency shall 
                consider the capabilities and past performance of each 
                member of the joint venture as the capabilities and 
                past performance of the joint venture.
                    ``(D) Use of small business teams or joint 
                ventures.--
                            ``(i) In general.--For contracts awarded 
                        under section 8(a), 8(m), 15(a), 15(j), 31, or 
                        36 to a team of small business prime 
                        contractors and subcontractors or a joint 
                        venture of small business concerns, the 
                        contracting officer shall certify annually to 
                        the Administration, for each year the contract 
                        is in effect, that each small business concern 
                        member of the team or joint venture has the 
                        same status of a small business concern, small 
                        business concern owned and controlled by 
                        service-disabled veterans, qualified HUBZone 
                        small business concern, small business concern 
                        owned and controlled by socially and 
                        economically disadvantaged individuals, or 
                        small business concern owned and controlled by 
                        women, as applicable, that such concern had at 
                        the time the contract was awarded.
                            ``(ii) Exception.--The requirements of 
                        clause (i) shall not apply to a contract 
                        awarded to a joint venture of small business 
                        concerns that is a protege under a mentor-
                        protege program approved pursuant to section 
                        45.''.
    (c) Rulemaking.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this section, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration 
shall issue any regulations necessary to carry out the amendments made 
by this section.
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