Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss without thanking Chairman Comer for the time on the floor today, and I might have to ask the chairman to introduce me everywhere going forward. I greatly appreciate that.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bill, the Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act.

For background, lowest price technically acceptable is the source selection method outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR.

Simply put, the LPTA FAR standard prioritizes price above everything else.

Focusing on price, instead of other technical or operational factors in Federal procurement, can result in agencies cutting corners, long- term value being sacrificed, or in its worse aspects, even potential risks to America's national security.

In my view, the use of the LPTA may not always be appropriate when Federal agencies purchase innovative technologies and technical services, and agencies should have the flexibility to pay more for a superior solution if the circumstances are appropriate.

I will say to the American people that, obviously with all of the things that we are talking about in Washington around the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, going through and trying to cut costs, we do have to be mindful that we are getting the best products for the Federal Government to use because that actually does yield great results for the American people.

Moreover, we, as Congress, have an obligation to fully understand the impacts of utilizing the LPTA.

One example of when the LPTA may not be appropriate relates to the procurement of Chinese drones.

Chinese drone maker, DJI, is the world's largest manufacturer of personal and professional drones, and Federal agencies to this day utilize DJI drones, which present a large national security risk.

Why would Federal agencies procure Chinese drones when there are higher-quality American drones currently available on the market?

That is when the lowest price technically acceptable FAR standard may come into play.

To provide some additional context, Chinese state-backed DJI aggressively dropped its prices in 2015 and now DJI drones account for more than 75 percent of the global drone marketplace, offering its products in over 100 countries. While a wide range of innovative American drone products are available, in many cases, the LPTA slides the Federal procurement preference scale away from American drones in favor of these Chinese drones merely because they are cheaper.

To emphasize, all companies in China are required by Chinese law to give the Communist Chinese Party access to all their information upon request.

In fact, in August 2017, Homeland Security Investigations issued an intelligence bulletin warning that DJI was providing critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese Government.

Today, the lowest price technically acceptable does not account for national security implications, so my bill would simply require an evaluation of potential national security concerns associated with the LPTA FAR standard.

Instead of just looking at the initial price tag and procuring the cheapest product and service, it is vitally important that the United States Government understand the national security implications associated with its own Federal procurement policies.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, Mr. Connolly, for co-leading this bipartisan initiative with me, and I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense piece of legislation.

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