[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 974 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

<DOC>
115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 974


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 14, 2017

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
 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 on a full-time basis. The Secretary shall determine 
such preference based on the percentage of the full-time 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) may be debarred from contracting with the 
Department for a period of not less than 5 years.
    ``(2) If the Secretary carries out 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 5 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.''.

            Passed the House of Representatives February 13, 2017.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.