The NDAA is one of the few bills Congress must pass every year. It funds the United States military and covers all Department of Defense appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year. The NDAA has passed for 64 continuous years, and AGC takes any attempt to add harmful construction policy to the bill very seriously.
AGC has been engaged with the NDAA process throughout the year. On November 19, AGC of America sent a letter to the Senate and House of Representatives ahead of the conference that outlined key provisions to be included in the final version of the bill. As AGC has previously reported, this year’s version of the billplaced a strong emphasis on comprehensive acquisition reform. In the finalized version of the NDAA, the following AGC priorities were included:
- Requiring DoD to begin investigating and remediating PFAS in annual report;
- Requiring DoD providing coverage for contractors who cannot secure insurance for classified work;
- Granting DoD agencies the authority to use progressive design-build for military construction projects; and
- Allowing for Cost-Plus Incentive Fee contracting for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization program.
In addition, AGC pushed back against an amendment in both the House and Senate versions that would have overhauled CPARS evaluations to only consider negative comments. The finalized version of the NDAA did not include these changes, and we thank members of the conference committee for excluding the amendment.
AGC will continue to advocate for contractor priorities to be included in future versions of the bill to ensure there are no attempts to add harmful construction policy.
For more information, please contact John Chambers.