With “Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” (LPTA) contracts, price is the principal factor for award.
While this is a perfectly acceptable way to evaluate offers for certain commercial commodities, it can be misused.
The Promoting Value Based Procurement Act would discourage agencies from relying on LPTA awards unless they can show that non-price factors (experience, quality etc) are unlikely to make a big difference.
The bill was approved, and now proceeds to the House floor.