The Defense Department today issued a proposed rule that would implement sections of 2017 and 2018 legislation limiting the use of lowest-price, technically acceptable source selection.
The proposed rule, released in the Federal Register, would put into place restrictions included in the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 National Defense Authorization Acts.
The legislation says the LPTA approach can only be used when minimum requirements can be described clearly and comprehensively, when little value will be realized from a proposal that exceeds the minimum requirements, the proposed technical approaches will require little subjective judgment and little additional innovation could be realized by using a different source selection process, among other restrictions.
The legislation also says LPTA should be avoided when purchasing IT, cybersecurity, systems engineering, advance electronic testing and other knowledge-based professional services.
LPTA has come under fire from industry and Capitol Hill in recent years as contractors have argued the Pentagon improperly applied the approach.
Comments are due by Feb. 4.