Sponsors
The bill tightens national-security protections and transparency by excluding contractors with certain foreign ties and strengthening enforcement, at the cost of shrinking the available contractor pool, raising compliance and litigation risks, and forcing agencies to implement changes without new funding.
Federal agencies, service members, and taxpayers: the bill bars contractors who consult for certain foreign governments or sanctioned entities from covered U.S. defense and national-security contracts, reducing conflicts of interest and lowering the risk that contractor work benefits geopolitical adversaries.
Taxpayers and Congress: requires expanded reporting, public disclosure of waivers, and tighter oversight of exceptions, increasing transparency about when national-security waivers are used and who receives contracts.
Taxpayers and federal programs: strengthens enforcement by expanding suspension/debarment tools and increasing penalties for hidden foreign contracts, deterring fraud and making it easier to remove contractors who lie or conceal conflicts.
Federal programs, taxpayers, and agency staff: the pool of eligible, experienced contractors could shrink (and waiver rules are narrow), causing procurement delays, higher contract costs, and reduced program effectiveness as agencies struggle to fill or sustain contracts.
U.S. consulting firms and small businesses: companies that provide foreign consulting may lose business or be effectively excluded from government work, reducing revenues and competition in the federal contracting market.
Government contractors and taxpayers: heavier compliance burdens, certification requirements, and expanded liability (including treble damages) raise financial risk, create incentives to raise prices, and increase litigation under statutes like the False Claims Act.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 24, 2025 by Robert P. Bresnahan · Last progress April 24, 2025
Blocks federal consulting contracts to firms (and their affiliates/subsidiaries) that simultaneously provide consulting services to certain foreign governments or covered foreign entities, unless a narrow, case-by-case national-security waiver is granted. Requires offerors to self-certify they have no such foreign consulting relationships, creates detailed waiver, reporting, and disclosure rules, expands suspension/debarment and False Claims Act liability for false or concealed certifications, defines covered entities and consulting services, and prohibits new appropriations for implementing the law.