The General Services Administration provided some clarity and furnished details regarding how the agency is implementing Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act at a Thursday webinar, but declined to address questions around the ambiguous terminology used in interim rules.
The feedback session comes just under a month after Part B of Section 889—which impacts all federal contractors—went into effect as an interim rule August 13. That provision prohibits the federal government from contracting with any entity using telecommunications equipment from five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE.
Since then, an additional provision related to System for Award Management representation requirements was published August 27. This latest interim rule expands the scope of representation requirements to go beyond whether a contractor provides covered telecoms to add whether a contractor uses covered telecom. The more limited Part A of Section 889, which prohibits the federal government from obtaining any equipment, services or systems from the covered companies, went into effect Aug. 13, 2019.
Thursday’s webinar explained some of Section 889’s nuances, and panelists emphasized the communications and outreach efforts they are undertaking to ensure contractors and agency customers are on the same page.
Critically, the GSA webinar refrained from addressing questions surrounding definitions of ambiguous terms such as “use,” “subsidiaries,” or “affiliates” in the language of Federal Acquisition Regulation rules. Maria Swaby, GSA’s procurement ombudsman, said GSA could not answer all submitted questions, and added that the webinar would exclude those questions not focused on implementation. Questions about the language of Section 889 itself should be directed to Regulations.gov, where anyone can submit public comment on Part B of Section 889 through September 14.
Clarifying the Rules
Still, Michael Thompson, senior policy adviser in GSA’s acquisition policy division, did put some of the technicalities in the ..
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