[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6146 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6146
To prohibit certain contractors who have previously consulted for
certain foreign entities or who fail to make disclosures relating to
conflicts of interest that relate to national security or foreign
policy from receiving contracts from the Department of State, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 1, 2023
Mr. Green of Tennessee introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit certain contractors who have previously consulted for
certain foreign entities or who fail to make disclosures relating to
conflicts of interest that relate to national security or foreign
policy from receiving contracts from the Department of State, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``No CCP Consultants Act''.
SEC. 2. ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTERESTS RELATING TO NATIONAL
SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY.
(a) Prohibition Related Certain Contracts or Grants.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may not, after the date of
the enactment of this Act, enter into, renew, or extend a
contract with, or award a grant to, a covered consultancy.
(2) Disclosure.--Any individual or entity that submits an
offer or bid for a contract to provide consulting services to
the Department of State shall disclose in such offer or bid any
information relevant to the individual or entity with respect
to the prohibition under paragraph (1), including--
(A) whether the individual or entity has entered
into a contract with, or received grants or other
financial awards from a covered entity in the five
years prior to submitting the offer or bid; and
(B) at the time the contract to provide consulting
services to the Department will be entered into,
whether--
(i) any contract entered into by the
individual or entity with a covered entity will
still be in effect; and
(ii) the individual or entity will be
receiving funds from, or have any unobligated
or unexpended funds received under, any grant
or other financial award from a covered entity.
(3) Penalties.--
(A) In general.--If the Secretary determines that a
contractor of the Department failed to make the
disclosure required by paragraph (2), the Secretary
shall--
(i) terminate the applicable contract for
cause; and
(ii) initiate a suspension and debarment
proceeding with respect to the contractor.
(B) Maximum length of debarment.--The maximum
length of debarment of a contractor under this
paragraph shall be a period of 5 years.
(b) Certification.--
(1) In general.--After a determination by the Secretary
that a company is a covered consultancy, such company may
submit to the Secretary a written and signed certification
that--
(A) the consultancy is no longer--
(i) performing under a contract with a
covered entity;
(ii) carrying out activities under a grant
received from a covered entity; or
(iii) receiving funds, or have any
unobligated or unexpended funds received from a
covered entity; and
(B) will not receive or pursue a contract with a
covered entity or a grant or other financial award from
a covered entity--
(i) during the term of a contract with the
Department of State; or
(ii) while receiving funds from the
Department of State or obligating or expending
any such funds.
(2) Status change.--Upon the approval by the Secretary of a
certification submitted under paragraph (1), a company is
deemed to not be a covered consultancy until the expiration of
the certification under paragraph (3).
(3) Expiration.--A certification submitted by a company
under paragraph (1) shall expire on the earlier date on which
the company, after submitting such certification enters into,
extends, renews, or performs under a contract with a covered
entity for consulting services.
(c) Guidance.--The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of
Commerce, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of the
Treasury, the Director of National Intelligence, the Attorney General,
the Secretary of Defense, and the heads of such other Executive
agencies (as such term is defined in section 105 of title 5, United
States Code) as determined appropriate by the Secretary, shall issue
procurement policies for the Department of State as follows:
(1) Policies to implement the prohibition under subsection
(a)(1).
(2) Best practices to avoid becoming covered consultancies
under this section and for covered consultancies to end their
status as such.
(3) A policy containing the exact provisions and terms
relating to the requirements of paragraphs (2) and (3) of
subsection (a) to be included in solicitations, contracts, and
grants of the Department.
(d) Revision of Department of State Acquisition Regulation.--Not
later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary shall revise the acquisition regulations of the Department of
State to implement this section.
(e) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Consulting services.--The term ``consulting services''
has the meaning given the term ``advisory and assistance
services'' in section 2.101 of the Federal Acquisition
Regulation, except that--
(A) the term does not include the services
described in paragraph (3) of such section; and
(B) each instance of the term ``Federal'' is
replaced with ``client''.
(2) Covered consultancy.--The term ``covered consultancy''
means a company that, itself or any subsidiary or affiliate
thereof, in immediately preceding one year period entered into,
extended, renewed, or performed under a contract with a covered
entity for consulting services.
(3) Covered entity.--The term ``covered entity'' means any
of the following:
(A) The Government of the People's Republic of
China.
(B) The Chinese Communist Party.
(C) The People's Liberation Army, the Ministry of
State Security, or other security service or
intelligence agency of the People's Republic of China.
(D) Any entity on the Non-SDN Chinese Military-
Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC-List)
maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of
the Department of the Treasury under Executive Order
14032 (86 Fed. Reg. 30145; relating to addressing the
threat from securities investments that finance certain
companies of the People's Republic of China), or any
successor order.
(E) Any Chinese military company identified by the
Secretary of Defense pursuant to section 1237(b) of the
Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 1999 (Public Law 105-261; 50 U.S.C. 1701
note).
(F) Any Chinese state-owned entity or other entity
under the ownership, or control, directly or
indirectly, of the Government of the People's Republic
of China or the Chinese Communist Party that is engaged
in one or more national security industries.
(G) The Government of the Russian Federation, any
Russian State-owned entity, or any entity sanctioned by
the Secretary of the Treasury under Executive Order
13662 titled ``Blocking Property of Additional Persons
Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine''(79 Fed. 5
Reg. 16169).
(H) The government or any State-owned entity of any
country if the Secretary of State determines that such
government has repeatedly provided support for acts of
international terrorism pursuant to--
(i) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export
Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C.
4318(c)(1)(A));
(ii) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371);
(iii) section 40 of the Arms Export Control
Act (22 U.S.C. 2780); or
(iv) any other provision of law.
(I) Any entity included on any of the following
lists maintained by the Department of Commerce--
(i) the Entity List set forth in Supplement
No. 4 to part 744 of the Export Administration
Regulations;
(ii) the Denied Persons List as described
in section 764.3(a)(2) of the Export
Administration Regulations; and
(iii) the Unverified List set forth in
Supplement No. 6 to part 744 of the Export
Administration Regulations.
(J) The Military End User List set forth in
Supplement No. 7 to part 744 of the Export
Administration Regulations.
(4) Export administration regulations.--The term ``Export
Administration Regulations'' means the regulations set forth in
subchapter C of chapter VII of title 15, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(5) National security industry.--The term ``national
security industry'' means--
(A) a military-related industry;
(B) semiconductor production;
(C) researching or commercializing quantum
computing;
(D) producing products or services that use
artificial intelligence;
(E) the biotechnology industry;
(F) the cybersecurity industry; or
(G) the mining, processing, or refining of critical
minerals (as such term is defined in section 7002(a) of
the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. 1606(a))) for use by
a covered entity.
(6) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of State.
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