Fair and Open Competition

Platts Amendment to H.R. 720, the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007

Madam Speaker,

The adoption of this amendment would help to ensure sufficient competition among the designers and manufacturers of water and wastewater treatment equipment throughout the country.  It is premised on the idea that small firms ought to have the same chance at bidding on a project as large firms.  In addition, with there being a critical need to upgrade our water and sewer infrastructure, requiring States to ensure a full-and-open competition would likely reduce the costs of the program and help finance additional necessary projects. 

This amendment would simply provide that "no specification for bids.shall be written in such a manner as to contain proprietary, exclusionary, or discriminatory requirements other than those based upon performance, unless such requirements are necessary to test or demonstrate a specific thing or to provide for necessary interchangeability of parts and equipment." 

It further provides:  "When in the judgment of the grantee, it is impractical or uneconomical to make a clear and accurate description of the technical requirements, a 'brand name or equal' description may be used as a means to define the performance or other salient requirements of a procurement, and in doing so the grantee need not establish the existence of any source other than the brand or source so named."
The language found in this amendment is the same competition requirement that applied to grants provided under Title II of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.  While not identical, it is also similar to a competition requirement adopted by my home state of Pennsylvania for its Revolving Fund. 

I urge a "yes" vote on this amendment and yield back the balance of my time. 

Note: This amendment was subsequently adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote.