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2012 SESSION

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Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology
Subcommittee #2

Stuart (Chairman), Herring, Petersen, Vogel, Reeves

Clerk: Michael Adams, Jocelyn Lance
Staff: Amigo Wade
Date of Meeting: January 26, 2012
Time and Place: Thursday, 4:00 PM, GAB, 3 West Conference Room

S.B. 79

Patron: Watkins

Virginia Public Procurement Act; bid match preference for Virginia businesses.  Provides a bid match preference for Virginia business. Under the bill, a Virginia business has an opportunity to match the lowest bid of an out-of-state bidder if the bid of a Virginia business is within five percent or $10,000 of the lowest bid of an out-of-state bidder, whichever is less. The bill also provides that to be deemed a resident of Virginia, a Virginia person, firm, or corporation must have paid unemployment taxes or income taxes in Virginia in addition to being organized pursuant to Virginia law or maintaining a principal place of business within Virginia.

S.B. 260

Patron: Ebbin

Virginia Public Procurement Act; use of best value procurement by certain localities.  Authorizes the governing body of a locality with a population in excess of 100,000 to procure construction on a best value procurement basis. Under the bill, if proceeding on a best value procurement basis, the Request for Proposal must contain a notice to potential offerors that the procurement decision will be made on a best value procurement basis and describe the (i) criteria that will be considered in evaluating the proposals, and (ii) the rating or weighting system that will be used in evaluating the proposals, including a disclosure that price will be weighted at least 51 percent as a factor.

S.B. 377

Patron: McEachin

Construction projects using public funds; iron, steel, and manufactured goods must be produced in the United States.  Prohibits use of state funds for construction projects, including any construction, alteration, maintenance or repair of a public building or public works project, unless all of the iron, steel, and manufactured goods, including equipment, used in the project are produced in the United States. Under the bill an exception to the requirement is provided if the administrative head of the contracting state agency determines in writing that (i) iron, steel, and relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality or (ii) inclusion of iron, steel, and manufactured goods produced in the United Sates will increase the costs of the overall project by more than 25 percent.

S.B. 525

Patron: Marsh

Virginia Public Procurement Act; preference for local products and firms; applicability.  Authorizes localities to apply a preference for bidders or offerors located in the locality of up to 10 percent, provided (i) for competitive sealed bidding the percentage of the discount is stated in the Invitation to Bid, (ii) for competitive negotiations the percentage of the increase is stated in the Request for Proposal, and (iii) the discount percentage or increase percentage is included in the informal solicitation for small purchase.

S.B. 526

Patron: Marsh

Virginia Public Procurement Act; permissive contract provisions for localities; resident employment.  Authorizes any locality to include in its contracts a provision requiring the contractor to ensure that a specified percentage, not to exceed 20 percent, of the work under the contract be performed by residents of the locality.

S.B. 539

Patron: Puller

Procurement; forward energy pricing.  Authorizes any public body to use forward pricing mechanisms for budget risk reduction. Forward pricing mechanisms are contracts or financial instruments that obligate the public body to buy or sell a specified quantity of energy at a future date at a set price or provide the option to buy or sell the contract or financial instrument. Forward pricing mechanism transactions may be made only if (i) the quantity of energy affected by the mechanism does not exceed the estimated energy use for the public body for the same period, (ii) the period of the mechanism does not exceed 48 months, (iii) a separate account is established for operational energy for the public body, (iv) the public body develops written policies and procedures, and (v) the public body establishes an oversight process.

S.B. 572

Patron: Vogel

Virginia Public Procurement Act; preference for local businesses.  Allows a locality to give a procurement preference to persons, firms, or corporations having principal places of business in the locality if such bidder's bid is within five percent of the lowest bid. The bill provides that prior to awarding a contract under the preference, the locality must certify in writing that (i) exercising the preference provides goods, services, and construction comparable in quality to that of other non-local bids and (ii) using a local business provides beneficial economic effects in the community through creating and sustaining local jobs and by generating local tax revenues.

S.B. 589

Patron: Deeds

Virginia Public Procurement Act; resident employment and apprenticeship participation; required contract provisions.  Requires all public bodies to include in every contract of more than $100,000 that involves the performance of work within the Commonwealth provisions requiring the contractor to agree (i) that 51 percent of all positions created in performance of the contract be filled by Virginia residents, (ii) that 35 percent of the total hours worked by apprentices in positions created in performance of the contract be performed by Virginia residents, and (iii) to use the Virginia Employment Commission as the first source of referral for obtaining qualified applicants for any new position. Under the bill, "new position" shall not include a position that is filled by a current employee of the contractor or an individual who was previously laid off by the contractor.

S.B. 601

Patron: Saslaw

Public procurement; products manufactured in the United States.  Requires public contracts for the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, improvement, or maintenance of a public building or public works to contain a provision that the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used or supplied in the performance of the public contract or any subcontract are manufactured in the United States. This requirement does not apply if the requirement is inconsistent with the public interest, the products are not manufactured within the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or with satisfactory quality, or using the products will increase the cost of the public contract by 25 percent or more. A person intentionally mislabeling or misrepresenting the origin of products will be ineligible to receive any other public contracts.

S.B. 651

Patron: McEachin

Virginia Public Procurement Act; women-owned and minority-owned businesses; remedial measures.  Provides that the Governor shall require state agencies to implement appropriate enhancement or remedial measures consistent with prevailing law when a persuasive analysis exists that documents statistically significant disparity between the availability and utilization of women-owned and minority-owned businesses.