FACE Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3500 To amend the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to incorporate the recommendations made by the Government Account- ability Office relating to advance contracts, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 26, 2019 Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To amend the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to incorporate the recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office relating to ad- vance contracts, 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 ‘‘Federal Advance Con- 4 tracts Enhancement Act’’ or the ‘‘FACE Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds that— 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3500 IH (1) the Post-Katrina Emergency Management 1 and Reform Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–925; 120 2 Stat. 1394) required the Federal Emergency Man- 3 agement Agency to establish advance contracts, 4 which are established prior to disasters and are typi- 5 cally needed to quickly provide life-sustaining goods 6 and services in the immediate aftermath of a dis- 7 aster; 8 (2) the catastrophic hurricanes and wildfires in 9 the United States in 2017 highlighted the impor- 10 tance of these advance contracts in disaster re- 11 sponse; 12 (3) in a report issued by the Government Ac- 13 countability Office entitled ‘‘2017 Disaster Con- 14 tracting: Action Needed to Better Ensure More Ef- 15 fective Use and Management of Advance Contracts’’, 16 the Government Accountability Office identified a 17 number of challenges with advance contracts and 18 recommended actions to improve management by the 19 Federal Emergency Management Agency of these 20 contracts for future disasters; and 21 (4) section 691 of the Post-Katrina Emergency 22 Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 791) 23 should be amended to incorporate the recommenda- 24 tions made by the report described in paragraph (3) 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3500 IH to ensure more effective use and management of ad- 1 vance contracts. 2 SEC. 3. FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY AD- 3 VANCE CONTRACTS. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 691 of the Post-Katrina 5 Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 6 791) is amended by adding at the end the following: 7 ‘‘(e) UPDATED REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 8 after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Admin- 9 istrator shall submit to the appropriate committees of 10 Congress an updated report that contains— 11 ‘‘(1) the information required in the initial re- 12 port under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection 13 (a)(1); and 14 ‘‘(2) an updated strategy described in sub- 15 section (a)(1)(C) that clearly defines— 16 ‘‘(A) the objectives of advance contracts; 17 ‘‘(B) how advance contracts contribute to 18 disaster response operations of the Agency; 19 ‘‘(C) how to maximize the award of ad- 20 vance contracts to small business concerns, as 21 defined in section 3 of the Small Business Act 22 (15 U.S.C. 632); and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3500 IH ‘‘(D) whether and how advance contracts 1 should be prioritized in relation to new post-dis- 2 aster contract awards. 3 ‘‘(f) ADDITIONAL DUTIES OF THE ADMINIS- 4 TRATOR.— 5 ‘‘(1) HEAD OF CONTRACTING.—The Adminis- 6 trator shall ensure that the head of contracting ac- 7 tivity of the Agency— 8 ‘‘(A) not later than 270 days after the date 9 of enactment of this subsection, updates the 10 Disaster Contracting Desk Guide of the Agency 11 to provide specific guidance— 12 ‘‘(i) on whether and under what cir- 13 cumstances contracting officers should con- 14 sider using existing advance contracts en- 15 tered into in accordance with this section 16 prior to making new post-disaster contract 17 awards, and include this guidance in exist- 18 ing semi-annual training given to con- 19 tracting officers; and 20 ‘‘(ii) for contracting officers to per- 21 form outreach to State and local govern- 22 ments on the potential benefits of estab- 23 lishing their own pre-negotiated advance 24 contracts; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 3500 IH ‘‘(B) adheres to hard copy contract file 1 management requirements in effect to ensure 2 that the files relating to advance contracts en- 3 tered into in accordance with this section are 4 complete and up to date, whether the files will 5 be transferred into the Electronic Contract Fil- 6 ing System of the Agency or remain in hard 7 copy format; 8 ‘‘(C) notifies contracting officers of the 3- 9 day time frame requirement for entering com- 10 pleted award documentation into the contract 11 writing system of the Agency when executing 12 notice to proceed documentation; 13 ‘‘(D) not later than 180 days after the 14 date of enactment of this subsection, revises the 15 reporting methodology of the Agency to ensure 16 that all disaster contracts are included in each 17 quarterly report submitted to the appropriate 18 congressional committees under this section on 19 disaster contract actions; 20 ‘‘(E) identifies a single centralized resource 21 listing advance contracts entered into under 22 this section and ensures that source is current 23 and up to date and includes all available ad- 24 vance contracts; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 3500 IH ‘‘(F) communicates complete and up-to- 1 date information on available advance contracts 2 to State and local governments to inform their 3 advance contracting efforts. 4 ‘‘(2) MASTER ACQUISITION PLANNING SCHED- 5 ULE.—Not later than 180 days after the date of en- 6 actment of this subsection, the Administrator shall 7 update and implement guidance for program office 8 and acquisition personnel of the Agency to— 9 ‘‘(A) identify acquisition planning time 10 frames and considerations across the entire ac- 11 quisition planning process of the Agency; and 12 ‘‘(B) clearly communicate the purpose and 13 use of a master acquisition planning schedule.’’. 14 (b) REPORT.—The Administrator of the Federal 15 Emergency Management Agency shall regularly update 16 the appropriate committees of Congress (as defined in sec- 17 tion 602 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Re- 18 form Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 701)) on the progress of the 19 Federal Emergency Management Agency in implementing 20 the recommendations of the Government Accountability 21 Office in the report entitled ‘‘2017 Disaster Contracting: 22 Action Needed to Better Ensure More Effective Use and 23 Management of Advance Contracts’’, as required under 24 section 691 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 3500 IH Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 791), as amended by sub- 1 section (a). 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 Jul 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3500.IH H3500 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS