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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 5736
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 3944
Referred to Committee on VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Introduced by:
(VA)
AN ACT CONCERNING PR ICE PREFERENCES FOR VETERAN-
OWNED BUSINESSES IN STATE CONTRACTING.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (c) of section 4a-59 of the general statutes is 1
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 2
1, 2021): 3
(c) All open market orders or contracts shall be awarded to (1) the 4
lowest responsible qualified bidder, the qualities of the articles to be 5
supplied, their conformity with the specifications, their suitability to the 6
requirements of the state government and the delivery terms being 7
taken into consideration and, at the discretion of the Commissioner of 8
Administrative Services, life-cycle costs and trade-in or resale value of 9
the articles may be considered where it appears to be in the best interest 10
of the state, (2) the highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid, in 11
accordance with the criteria set forth in the bid solicitation for the 12
contract, or (3) the proposer whose proposal is deemed by the awarding 13
authority to be the most advantageous to the state, in accordance with 14
the criteria set forth in the request for proposals, including price and 15 Committee Bill No. 5736
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evaluation factors. Notwithstanding any provision of the general 16
statutes to the contrary, each state agency awarding a contract through 17
competitive negotiation shall include price as an explicit factor in the 18
criteria in the request for proposals and for the contract award. In 19
considering past performance of a bidder for the purpose of 20
determining the "lowest responsible qualified bidder" or the "highest 21
scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid", the commissioner shall 22
evaluate the skill, ability and integrity of the bidder in terms of the 23
bidder's fulfillment of past contract obligations and the bidder's 24
experience or lack of experience in delivering supplies, materials, 25
equipment or contractual services of the size or amount for which bids 26
have been solicited. In determining the lowest responsible qualified 27
bidder for the purposes of this section, the commissioner may give a 28
price preference of up to ten per cent for (A) the purchase of goods made 29
with recycled materials or the purchase of recyclable or remanufactured 30
products if the commissioner determines that such preference would 31
promote recycling or remanufacturing. As used in this subsection, 32
"recyclable" means able to be collected, separated or otherwise 33
recovered from the solid waste stream for reuse, or for use in the 34
manufacture or assembly of another package or product, by means of a 35
recycling program which is reasonably available to at least seventy-five 36
per cent of the state's population, "remanufactured" means restored to 37
its original function and thereby diverted from the solid waste stream 38
by retaining the bulk of components that have been used at least once 39
and by replacing consumable components and "remanufacturing" 40
means any process by which a product is remanufactured; (B) the 41
purchase of motor vehicles powered by a clean alternative fuel; (C) the 42
purchase of motor vehicles powered by fuel other than a clean 43
alternative fuel and conversion equipment to convert such motor 44
vehicles allowing the vehicles to be powered by either the exclusive use 45
of clean alternative fuel or dual use of a clean alternative fuel and a fuel 46
other than a clean alternative fuel. As used in this subsection, "clean 47
alternative fuel" means natural gas, electricity, hydrogen or propane 48
when used as a motor vehicle fuel; (D) the purchase of goods or services 49
from a veteran-owned business. As used in this subsection, "veteran-50 Committee Bill No. 5736
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owned business" means a business of which at least fifty-one per cent of 51
the ownership is held by one or more veterans and "veteran" means any 52
person (i) honorably discharged from, or released under honorable 53
conditions from active service in, the armed forces, as defined in section 54
27-103, or (ii) with a qualifying condition, as defined in said section, who 55
has received a discharge other than bad conduct or dishonorable from 56
active service in the armed forces; or [(D)] (E) the purchase of goods or 57
services from a micro business, except that, in the case of a veteran-58
owned micro business, the commissioner may give a price preference of 59
up to fifteen per cent. As used in this subsection, "micro business" means 60
a business with gross revenues not exceeding three million dollars in the 61
most recently completed fiscal year, "veteran-owned micro business" 62
means a micro business of which at least fifty-one per cent of the 63
ownership is held by one or more veterans. [and "veteran" means any 64
person (i) honorably discharged from, or released under honorable 65
conditions from active service in, the armed forces, as defined in section 66
27-103, or (ii) with a qualifying condition, as defined in said section, who 67
has received a discharge other than bad conduct or dishonorable from 68
active service in the armed forces.] All other factors being equal, 69
preference shall be given to supplies, materials and equipment 70
produced, assembled or manufactured in the state and services 71
originating and provided in the state. Except with regard to contracts 72
that may be paid for with United States Department of Transportation 73
funds, if any such bidder refuses to accept, within ten days, a contract 74
awarded to such bidder, such contract may be awarded to the next 75
lowest responsible qualified bidder or the next highest scoring bidder in 76
a multiple criteria bid, whichever is applicable, and so on until such 77
contract is awarded and accepted. Except with regard to contracts that 78
may be paid for with United States Department of Transportation funds, 79
if any such proposer refuses to accept, within ten days, a contract 80
awarded to such proposer, such contract shall be awarded to the next 81
most advantageous proposer, and so on until the contract is awarded 82
and accepted. There shall be a written evaluation made of each bid. This 83
evaluation shall identify the vendors and their respective costs and 84
prices, document the reason why any vendor is deemed to be 85 Committee Bill No. 5736
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nonresponsive and recommend a vendor for award. A contract valued 86
at one million dollars or more shall be awarded to a bidder other than 87
the lowest responsible qualified bidder or the highest scoring bidder in 88
a multiple criteria bid, whichever is applicable, only with written 89
approval signed by the Commissioner of Administrative Services and 90
by the Comptroller. The commissioner shall post on the department's 91
Internet web site all awards made pursuant to the provisions of this 92
section. 93
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2021 4a-59(c)
VA Joint Favorable
GAE Joint Favorable