MCAA-backed procurement reform measures are shaping up again this year.  The 2015 National Defense Authorization (NDAA) measure will be marked up in the House Armed Services Committee during the week of May 5.  Several MCAA-backed procurement reforms may be appended to that measure. They are:

1. HR 776, requiring U.S. Treasury securities to back individual surety bonds;
2. HR 2751, banning Internet reverse auctions for direct federal low-bid construction procurement;
3. HR 2750, requiring federal agencies to short-list no more than five design-build firms in negotiated selection procedures for DB federal construction projects.

MCAA and the Quality Construction Alliance groups - TAUC, SMACNA, ICE-BAC, FCA and the National Subcontractors Alliance - are also working to gain inclusion in the 2015 NDAA of HR 1942, sub bid listing on low-bid, and low-price/technically acceptable (LPTA) award procedures for direct federal construction projects. The industry's position is that sub bid listing is as meritorious and necessary a reform as the three measures above. The Senate Armed Services Committee is also holding a hearing on April 30 on Reform of the Defense Acquisition System in anticipation of the 2015 NDAA moving to the Senate, where the above-noted procurement reforms also may be germane.