II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1064
To preserve open competition and Federal Government neutrality towards
the labor relations of Federal Government contractors on Federal and
federally funded construction projects, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH13, 2025
Mr. Y
OUNG(for himself, Mr. TUBERVILLE, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. CORNYN, Mr.
H
AGERTY, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. BUDD, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. WICKER, Mr.
C
RAMER, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. GRASSLEY,
Mrs. B
LACKBURN, Mr. RISCH, and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To preserve open competition and Federal Government neu-
trality towards the labor relations of Federal Government
contractors on Federal and federally funded construction
projects, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair and Open Com-4
petition Act’’ or the ‘‘FOCA Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 1
It is the purpose of this Act to— 2
(1) promote and ensure open competition on 3
Federal and federally funded or assisted construc-4
tion projects; 5
(2) maintain Federal Government neutrality to-6
wards the labor relations of Federal Government 7
contractors on Federal and federally funded or as-8
sisted construction projects; 9
(3) reduce construction costs to the Federal 10
Government and to the taxpayers; 11
(4) expand job opportunities, especially for 12
small and disadvantaged businesses; and 13
(5) prevent discrimination against Federal Gov-14
ernment contractors or their employees based upon 15
labor affiliation or the lack thereof, thereby pro-16
moting the economical, nondiscriminatory, and effi-17
cient administration and completion of Federal and 18
federally funded or assisted construction projects. 19
SEC. 3. PRESERVATION OF OPEN COMPETITION AND FED-20
ERAL GOVERNMENT NEUTRALITY. 21
(a) P
ROHIBITION.— 22
(1) G
ENERAL RULE.—The head of each execu-23
tive agency that awards or enters into any construc-24
tion contract or that obligates funds pursuant to 25
such a contract, shall ensure that the agency, and 26
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any construction manager acting on behalf of the 1
Federal Government with respect to such contract, 2
in its bid specifications, project agreements, or other 3
controlling documents does not— 4
(A) require or prohibit a bidder, offeror, 5
contractor, or subcontractor from entering into, 6
or adhering to, agreements with 1 or more 7
labor organizations, with respect to that con-8
struction project or another related construction 9
project; or 10
(B) discriminate against or give preference 11
to a bidder, offeror, contractor, or subcon-12
tractor because such bidder, offeror, contractor, 13
or subcontractor— 14
(i) becomes a signatory, or otherwise 15
adheres to, an agreement with 1 or more 16
labor organizations with respect to that 17
construction project or another related 18
construction project; or 19
(ii) refuses to become a signatory, or 20
otherwise adhere to, an agreement with 1 21
or more labor organizations with respect to 22
that construction project or another related 23
construction project. 24
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(2) APPLICATION OF PROHIBITION .—This sub-1
section shall apply with respect to— 2
(A) contracts awarded on or after the date 3
of the enactment of this Act; and 4
(B) subcontracts awarded under such con-5
tracts. 6
(3) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 7
paragraph (1) may be construed to prohibit a con-8
tractor or subcontractor from voluntarily entering 9
into an agreement described in such paragraph. 10
(4) F
EDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION .—Not 11
later than 60 days after the date of the enactment 12
of this Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulation shall 13
be revised to implement the provisions of this sub-14
section. 15
(b) R
ECIPIENTS OFGRANTS ANDOTHERASSIST-16
ANCE.—The head of each executive agency that awards 17
grants, provides financial assistance, or enters into cooper-18
ative agreements for construction projects after the date 19
of the enactment of this Act shall ensure that— 20
(1) the bid specifications, project agreements, 21
or other controlling documents for such construction 22
projects of a recipient of a grant or financial assist-23
ance, or by the parties to a cooperative agreement, 24
do not contain any of the requirements or prohibi-25
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tions described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of sub-1
section (a)(1); or 2
(2) the bid specifications, project agreements, 3
or other controlling documents for such construction 4
projects of a construction manager acting on behalf 5
of a recipient or party described in paragraph (1) do 6
not contain any of the requirements or prohibitions 7
described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of subsection 8
(a)(1). 9
(c) F
AILURETOCOMPLY.—If an executive agency, 10
a recipient of a grant or financial assistance from an exec-11
utive agency, a party to a cooperative agreement with an 12
executive agency, or a construction manager acting on be-13
half of such an agency, recipient, or party, fails to comply 14
with subsection (a) or (b), the head of the executive agency 15
awarding the contract, grant, or assistance, or entering 16
into the agreement involved, shall take such action, con-17
sistent with the law, as the head of such agency deter-18
mines to be appropriate. 19
(d) E
XEMPTIONS.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The head of an executive 21
agency may exempt a particular project, contract, 22
subcontract, grant, or cooperative agreement from 23
the requirements of 1 or more of the provisions of 24
subsections (a) and (b) if the head of such agency 25
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determines that special circumstances exist that re-1
quire an exemption in order to avert an imminent 2
threat to public health or safety or to serve the na-3
tional security. 4
(2) S
PECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES .—For purposes 5
of paragraph (1), a finding of special circumstances 6
may not be based on the possibility or existence of 7
a labor dispute concerning contractors or sub-8
contractors that are nonsignatories to, or that other-9
wise do not adhere to, agreements with 1 or more 10
labor organizations, or labor disputes concerning em-11
ployees on the project who are not members of, or 12
affiliated with, a labor organization. 13
(3) A
DDITIONAL EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN 14
PROJECTS.—The head of an executive agency, upon 15
application of an awarding authority, a recipient of 16
grants or financial assistance, a party to a coopera-17
tive agreement, or a construction manager acting on 18
behalf of any of such entities, may exempt a par-19
ticular project from the requirements of any or all 20
of the provisions of subsection (a) or (b), if the head 21
of such agency finds— 22
(A) that the awarding authority, recipient 23
of grants or financial assistance, party to a co-24
operative agreement, or construction manager 25
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acting on behalf of any of such entities had 1
issued or was a party to, as of the date of the 2
enactment of this Act, bid specifications, project 3
agreements, agreements with 1 or more labor 4
organizations, or other controlling documents 5
with respect to that particular project, which 6
contained any of the requirements or prohibi-7
tions set forth in subsection (a)(1); and 8
(B) that 1 or more construction contracts 9
subject to such requirements or prohibitions 10
had been awarded as of the date of the enact-11
ment of this Act. 12
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) C
ONSTRUCTION CONTRACT .—The term 14
‘‘construction contract’’ means any contract for the 15
construction, rehabilitation, alteration, conversion, 16
extension, or repair of buildings, highways, or other 17
improvements to real property. 18
(2) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘executive 19
agency’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘Executive 20
agency’’ in section 105 of title 5, United States 21
Code, except that such term does not include the 22
Government Accountability Office. 23
(3) L
ABOR ORGANIZATION .—The term ‘‘labor 24
organization’’ has the meaning given such term in 25
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section 701 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 1
U.S.C. 2000e). 2
Æ
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