Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary of a military department may not solicit an offer from, award a contract to, extend an existing contract with, or, when approval by the Secretary of the award of a subcontract is required, approve the award of a subcontract to, an offeror or contractor which to the Secretary’s knowledge has been debarred or suspended by another Federal agency unless—

Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary of a military department may not solicit an offer from, award a contract to, extend an existing contract with, or, when approval by the Secretary of the award of a subcontract is required, approve the award of a subcontract to, an offeror or contractor which to the Secretary’s knowledge has been debarred or suspended by another Federal agency unless—

(A) in the case of debarment, the debarment of the offeror or contractor by all other agencies has been terminated or the period of time specified for such debarment has expired; and

(B) in the case of a suspension, the period of time specified by all other agencies for the suspension of the offeror or contractor has expired.

(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply in any case in which the Secretary concerned determines that there is a compelling reason to solicit an offer from, award a contract to, extend a contract with, or approve a subcontract with such offeror or contractor.

Whenever the Secretary concerned makes a determination described in subsection (a)(2), he shall, at the time of the determination, transmit a notice to the Administrator of General Services describing the determination. The Administrator of General Services shall maintain each such notice on a publicly accessible website to the maximum extent practicable.

In this section:

(1) The term “debar” means to exclude, pursuant to established administrative procedures, from Government contracting and subcontracting for a specified period of time commensurate with the seriousness of the failure or offense or the inadequacy of performance.

(2) The term “suspend” means to disqualify, pursuant to established administrative procedures, from Government contracting and subcontracting for a temporary period of time because a concern or individual is suspected of engaging in criminal, fraudulent, or seriously improper conduct.

The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe in regulations a requirement that each contractor under contract with the Department of Defense shall require each contractor to whom it awards a contract (in this section referred to as a subcontractor) to disclose to the contractor whether the subcontractor is or is not, as of the time of the award of the subcontract, debarred or suspended by the Federal Government from Government contracting or subcontracting. The requirement shall apply to any subcontractor whose subcontract is in an amount greater than the simplified acquisition threshold (as defined in section 134 of title 41). The requirement shall not apply in the case of a subcontract for the acquisition of commercial items (as defined in section 103 of title 41).

(Added Pub. L. 97–86, title IX, § 914(a), Dec. 1, 1981, 95 Stat. 1124; amended Pub. L. 100–180, div. A, title XII, § 1231(17), Dec. 4, 1987, 101 Stat. 1161; Pub. L. 101–510, div. A, title VIII, § 813, Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1596; Pub. L. 102–190, div. A, title X, § 1061(a)(11), Dec. 5, 1991, 105 Stat. 1473; Pub. L. 103–355, title IV, § 4102(e), title VIII, § 8105(c), Oct. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 3340, 3392; Pub. L. 111–350, § 5(b)(24), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3844; Pub. L. 113–66, div. A, title VIII, § 813, Dec. 26, 2013, 127 Stat. 808; Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title VIII, § 836(e)(3), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1869.)