Retain Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2342 To amend titles 10 and 41, United States Code, to provide a contracting preference for contractors that retain American jobs and purchase goods and services in the United States, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 18, 2019 Mr. RYAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic- tion of the committee concerned A BILL To amend titles 10 and 41, United States Code, to provide a contracting preference for contractors that retain American jobs and purchase goods and services in the United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retain Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5 The Congress finds the following: 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 2342 IH (1) Hundreds of American corporations are 1 shipping thousands of jobs to foreign countries. 2 (2) United States companies either send Amer- 3 ican jobs overseas, or choose to employ cheap over- 4 seas labor, instead of American workers. 5 (3) Shifting of jobs occurs in all industry sec- 6 tors including manufacturing, services, supply chain, 7 and all others. 8 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS. 9 (a) CIVILIAN AGENCY CONTRACTS.— 10 (1) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 47 of title 41, 11 United States Code, is amended by adding at the 12 end the following new section: 13 ‘‘§ 4713. Preference for keeping jobs in the United 14 States 15 ‘‘(a) PREFERENCE.—The head of an executive agen- 16 cy shall give a preference for an offeror that certifies to 17 retain jobs performed in the United States (regardless of 18 the citizenship of the employee) and uses products sub- 19 stantially manufactured in the United States and services 20 provided in the United States for the contract for which 21 an offer is made. 22 ‘‘(b) APPLICABILITY TO SUBCONTRACTS.—The pref- 23 erence described under subsection (a) applies to the award 24 of a contract by an executive agency and the award of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 2342 IH any subcontract (at any tier) in the performance of such 1 contract. 2 ‘‘(c) CERTIFICATION.—To be eligible for the pref- 3 erence described under subsection (a), an offeror shall 4 submit a certification that confirms the offeror and any 5 subcontractor (if applicable)— 6 ‘‘(1) has not relocated jobs from the United 7 States to foreign countries in the preceding five 8 years; 9 ‘‘(2) has not established foreign facilities to per- 10 form the same function that otherwise could have 11 been performed in the United States with the inten- 12 tion of manufacturing or providing the same service 13 and importing the same product or service back to 14 the United States; 15 ‘‘(3) will not relocate jobs from the United 16 States to foreign countries during the period of per- 17 formance of the contract; and 18 ‘‘(4) will use products substantially manufac- 19 tured in the United States and services provided in 20 the United States under the contract. 21 ‘‘(d) EXCEPTION TO CERTIFICATION.—Notwith- 22 standing the requirements of the certification described 23 under subsection (c), the head of an executive agency may 24 except an offeror from any of the requirements if the ex- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 2342 IH ception is fully described and justified and one or more 1 of the following conditions apply: 2 ‘‘(1) The products are not manufactured in the 3 United States in sufficient and reasonably available 4 commercial quantities and are not of satisfactory 5 quality. 6 ‘‘(2) There is an unreasonable cost associated 7 with the use of products substantially manufactured 8 in the United States or services provided in the 9 United States. 10 ‘‘(3) The use of products substantially manu- 11 factured in the United States or services provided in 12 the United States would be inconsistent with the 13 public interest. 14 ‘‘(e) VIOLATION OF CERTIFICATION.—If the head of 15 an executive agency determines that a contractor has sub- 16 mitted a false statement or violated any of the require- 17 ments of the certification described in subsection (c), the 18 head of that executive agency shall terminate the contract 19 for which the contractor received the preference described 20 in subsection (a) and the contractor may not receive the 21 preference for a period of not less than 5 years. 22 ‘‘(f) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than November 23 1 of each year, the head of an executive agency shall sub- 24 mit to Congress a report that includes the names of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 2342 IH contractors that have submitted a false statement or vio- 1 lated any of the requirements of the certification described 2 in subsection (c) for the previous fiscal year. 3 ‘‘(g) APPLICABILITY TO PARENT COMPANIES AND 4 SUBSIDIARIES.—For purposes of this section, any prohibi- 5 tion on receiving a preference under subsection (e) applied 6 with respect to a contractor shall apply to any subsidiary 7 or parent company of the contractor.’’. 8 (2) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND- 9 MENT.—The table of sections at the beginning of 10 chapter 47 of title 41, United States Code, is 11 amended by adding at the end the following new 12 item: 13 ‘‘4713. Preference for keeping jobs in the United States.’’. (b) DEFENSE CONTRACTS.— 14 (1) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 137 of title 10, 15 United States Code, is amended by inserting after 16 section 2316 the following new section: 17 ‘‘§ 2317. Preference for keeping jobs in the United 18 States 19 ‘‘(a) PREFERENCE.—The head of an agency shall 20 give a preference for an offeror that certifies to retain jobs 21 performed in the United States (regardless of the citizen- 22 ship of the employee) in the United States and uses prod- 23 ucts substantially manufactured in the United States and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 2342 IH services provided in the United States for the contract for 1 which an offer is made. 2 ‘‘(b) APPLICABILITY TO SUBCONTRACTS.—The pref- 3 erence described under subsection (a) applies to the award 4 of a contract by any agency named in section 2303 of this 5 chapter and the award of any subcontract (at any tier) 6 in the performance of such contract. 7 ‘‘(c) CERTIFICATION.—To be eligible for the pref- 8 erence described under subsection (a), an offeror shall 9 submit a certification that confirms the offeror and any 10 subcontractor (if applicable)— 11 ‘‘(1) has not relocated jobs from the United 12 States to foreign countries in the preceding five 13 years; 14 ‘‘(2) has not established foreign facilities to per- 15 form the same function that otherwise could have 16 been performed in the United States with the inten- 17 tion of manufacturing or providing the same service 18 and importing the same product or service back to 19 the United States; 20 ‘‘(3) will not relocate jobs from the United 21 States to foreign countries during the period of per- 22 formance of the contract; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 2342 IH ‘‘(4) will use products substantially manufac- 1 tured in the United States and services provided in 2 the United States under the contract. 3 ‘‘(d) EXCEPTION TO CERTIFICATION.—Notwith- 4 standing the requirements of the certification described 5 under subsection (c), the head of an agency may except 6 an offeror from any of the requirements if the exception 7 is fully described and justified and one or more of the fol- 8 lowing conditions apply: 9 ‘‘(1) The products are not manufactured in the 10 United States in sufficient and reasonably available 11 commercial quantities and are not of satisfactory 12 quality. 13 ‘‘(2) There is an unreasonable cost associated 14 with the use of products substantially manufactured 15 in the United States or services provided in the 16 United States. 17 ‘‘(3) The use of products substantially manu- 18 factured in the United States or services provided in 19 the United States would be inconsistent with the 20 public interest. 21 ‘‘(e) VIOLATION OF CERTIFICATION.—If the head of 22 an agency determines that a contractor has submitted a 23 false statement or violated any of the requirements of the 24 certification described in subsection (c), the head of that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 2342 IH agency shall terminate the contract for which the con- 1 tractor received the preference described in subsection (a) 2 and the contractor may not receive the preference for a 3 period of not less than 5 years. 4 ‘‘(f) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than November 5 1 of each year, the head of an agency shall submit to Con- 6 gress a report that includes the names of the contractors 7 that have submitted a false statement or violated any of 8 the requirements of the certification described in sub- 9 section (c) for the previous fiscal year. 10 ‘‘(g) APPLICABILITY TO PARENT COMPANIES AND 11 SUBSIDIARIES.—For purposes of this section, any prohibi- 12 tion on receiving a preference under subsection (e) applied 13 with respect to a contractor shall apply to any subsidiary 14 or parent company of the contractor.’’. 15 (2) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND- 16 MENT.—The table of sections at the beginning of 17 chapter 137 of title 10, United States Code, is 18 amended by inserting after the item relating to sec- 19 tion 2316 the following new item: 20 ‘‘2317. Preference for keeping jobs in the United States.’’. (c) REVISION OF FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULA- 21 TION.—The Federal Acquisition Regulation shall be re- 22 vised to implement the amendment made by this section. 23 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.—The amend- 24 ments made by this section shall take effect on the date 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 2342 IH of the enactment of this Act and shall apply with respect 1 to any contract awarded on or after the date occurring 2 180 days after such effective date. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Apr 24, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2342.IH H2342 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS