IT Acquisition Bill Would Push 'Bid-To-Price' Selection Process

An updated draft Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act might open the door to a new way of choosing how to evaluate contractors’ proposals, and because the source selection technique would be in a statute, agencies could slowly shift toward that approach.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, included the fixed-price technical competition or bid-to-price method in his FITARA proposal. The little-known selection process attempts to balance price and value while weeding out low-balling bidders.

Under this technique, the agency issuing a solicitation would set a predetermined award price and invite contractors to compete on other factors, such as quality, past performance or technical details. With the price set beforehand, evaluation of proposals would be simpler and based solely on technical factors.