New bill would discourage DOD from using LPTA procurements

A new bill, the Promoting Value-Based Defense Procurement Act, has been introduced that would discourage the Defense Department from using lowest price technically acceptable evaluation criteria in IT acquisition, according to FCW.

The Senate sponsors, Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said that LPTA is overused and “provides no incentive for DOD to seek out the most innovative IT and engineering solutions, especially important as we are working to encourage more innovation in cybersecurity,” Senator Warner was quoted as saying.

The bill would update the DFARS to restrict the use of LPTA in acquisitions in which subjective comparison between bids is not relevant or DOD would obtain no benefit from a more expensive solution, FCW reported.