Emily Murphy, a senior fellow with the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, said Congress should immediately act to save Section 876 of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act to support competition and mitigate administrative burden on contracting officers and small businesses.
Murphy, former administrator of the General Services Administration, wrote in a commentary published Monday on Federal News Network that Section 876 is meant to ensure that vendors with the best technical ability secure positions on multiple-award contracts and advance price competition at the task order level.
She made the call in response to a decision by the Court of Federal Claims that restricted the applicability of the NDAA provision on multiple-award contracts such as Polaris and Oasis-Plus.
“As it pursues its legislative agenda, Congress can save Section 876 with a simple clarification that the authority extends to any services contract where pricing will be thoroughly competed prior to awarding each task order,” noted Murphy, a three-time Wash100 awardee.
“This could easily be accomplished as an amendment to the NDAA,” she added.
Click here to read some of Murphy’s featured articles for Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program.
