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119TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. ____
To require the publication of the price paid and the government-wide median price for items purchased through Federal Supply Schedules, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr./Ms. ____________ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
A BILL
To require the publication of the price paid and the government-wide median price for items purchased through Federal Supply Schedules, and for other purposes.
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 “Requiring Every Contract’s Expenditures In Published Transparent Summaries Act” or the “RECEIPTS Act”.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Federal procurement fraud, in every form, requires a price that is never compared to the price others pay for the same thing.
(2) The General Services Administration already collects the price paid for items purchased through Federal Supply Schedules under its Transactional Data Reporting requirements.
(3) That data is not published in a form that permits comparison of prices paid across agencies for identical items.
(4) Publication of the price paid alongside the government-wide median price requires no investigation, no adjudication, and no new administrative body.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
(a) COVERED PURCHASE.—The term “covered purchase” means an order exceeding $25,000 placed against a Federal Supply Schedule contract administered by the General Services Administration.
(b) ITEM.—The term “item” means a good or service identified by its manufacturer part number, Special Item Number, or, in the case of services, the labor category designated in the underlying schedule contract.
(c) DELIVERABLE UNIT.—The term “deliverable unit” means the countable good, hour, or measured quantity that an order obligates the vendor to deliver.
(d) MEDIAN PRICE.—The term “median price” means the median price per deliverable unit paid by the Federal Government for the same item across all covered purchases during the preceding 12 months.
SEC. 4. DISBURSEMENT CONDITION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning with the fiscal year that begins 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, no payment against a covered purchase may be disbursed unless the payment file transmitted to the disbursing agency contains, for each line item—
(1) the item identifier;
(2) the quantity of deliverable units;
(3) the price per deliverable unit; and
(4) the order identifier.
(b) NO NULL VALUES.—The disbursing agency shall reject any payment file in which a field required by subsection (a) is blank, null, or populated with a placeholder value.
(c) NOT A PENALTY.—Rejection under this section is not a penalty, finding, or adverse action against any agency or vendor, and may not be waived by any agency or by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
SEC. 5. COMPARISON AND PUBLICATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of General Services shall publish, for each covered purchase, in machine-readable form on a public website not later than 30 days after disbursement—
(1) each field required by section 4(a);
(2) the awarding agency and the vendor name;
(3) the median price for that item; and
(4) the ratio of the price paid to the median price.
(b) BULK ACCESS.—Data published under this section shall be downloadable in bulk and accessible by application programming interface, without registration, fee, or any restriction on reuse, redistribution, or republication.
(c) NOT A FINDING.—A ratio published under subsection (a)(4) is a statement of arithmetic. It is not a finding of waste, fraud, abuse, or improper payment, and shall not be cited as such in the absence of independent evidence.
(d) THIN MARKETS.—Where fewer than five covered purchases of an item occurred during the preceding 12 months, the Administrator shall publish the value “INSUFFICIENT COMPARISON DATA” in place of the values required by paragraphs (3) and (4) of subsection (a).
SEC. 6. INTEGRITY OF DISCLOSURE.
(a) UNIT AGGREGATION.—Reporting a multi-item or multi-period deliverable as a single unit does not satisfy section 4(a), except where the line item obligates delivery of a single indivisible item or a single measured service period.
(b) ANTI-FRAGMENTATION.—A requirement may not be divided into multiple orders for the purpose of falling below the threshold established in section 3(a).
SEC. 7. EXCEPTIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5 shall not apply to a covered purchase the publication of which would reveal properly classified information, or to a purchase made under a declared emergency for a period not exceeding 90 days from the date of the declaration.
(b) CONDITION NOT WAIVED.—Subsection (a) does not waive the disbursement condition established in section 4(a). Disclosure for a purchase exempted under subsection (a) shall be transmitted to the Committees on Appropriations and on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
SEC. 8. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.
(a) NO NEW SYSTEMS.—Nothing in this Act requires an agency to acquire, replace, or modernize a financial management system, or requires a vendor to report data not already reported under the Transactional Data Reporting requirements of the General Services Administration.
(b) VENDORS HELD HARMLESS.—Nothing in this Act authorizes the withholding of payment lawfully owed to a vendor. A vendor may not be delayed more than 30 days on account of an agency’s failure under this Act, and shall be entitled to interest under chapter 39 of title 31, United States Code, for any delay so caused.
(c) NO PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—Nothing in this Act creates a private right of action.
SEC. 9. REPORT AND SUNSET.
(a) REPORT.—Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on the distribution of price-to-median ratios by agency and item category, the administrative cost of compliance with this Act, and whether the requirements of this Act should be extended to procurement conducted outside the Federal Supply Schedules.
(b) SUNSET.—This Act shall cease to have effect on the date that is 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act, unless reauthorized by Act of Congress.
SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
No additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act.