A proposed bill could broaden competition for federal contracts by allowing federal agencies to eliminate price as a discerning factor when it comes to granting certain multi-award contracts. The legislation pertains to indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts, which do not have a fixed scope of work. While the bill could increase competition, it comes with its own set of challenges.

In a Law360 article published on Jan. 25, Nelson Mullins partner David Yang weighed in on the proposed legislation.

"A lot of times you have to evaluate pricing at the IDIQ level in a vacuum, because you don't really know what you're competing against," Yang said. "And so, while it may sound useful [to evaluate pricing up front], in practice it doesn't really lead to a realistic pricing paradigm, because it won't be until you're competing for the actual task order and you have a definitive statement of work that you're bidding against that you can really get more realistic pricing."

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