Urge Your Senators to Oppose the Use of Reverse Auctions
Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) this week introduced the AGC-backed Construction Consensus Procurement Improvement Act, and included the legislation as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to prohibit federal agencies from procuring construction services through reverse auctions. Please urge your senators to co-sponsor the bill and support this amendment.
Both the bill and amendment are identical. In addition to addressing reverse auctions, this legislation would reform design-build procurement--reasonably limiting the second-step design-build shortlist and reasonably limiting one-step design-build procurements--and helping prevent individual sureties from using illusory assets--i.e., vacation homes, coal mine waste--to back their bonds.
As co-chair of the Construction Industry Procurement Coalition, AGC and its coalition allies sent members of the Senate a letter urging them to support the amendment to the Defense Act. The Senate could consider this amendment either this week or next. The House already passed its version of the Defense Act, which included provisions prohibiting construction reverse auctions and requiring individual sureties to use real assets to back their bonds.
For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at christiansonj@agc.org or (703) 837-5325.