Acquisition bill passes House

The House of Representatives passed the Acquisition Streamlining Improvement Act, which extends for two years the Clinger-Cohen Act's pilot program authorizing streamlined acquisition procedures for commercially available goods and services.

The pilot program was set to expire at the end of this year. Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Dan Burton, R-Ind., sponsored the bill, H.R. 3921.

The streamlined procedures apply to purchases of $5 million or less when a contracting officer expects that responses to a solicitation will only include commercial items. The procedures permit the use of shorter deadlines, fewer government-unique requirements and minimized administrative costs.

The Defense Department used the pilot program authority to buy routers and switches to re-establish the communications grid at the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.