A bill to improve small business access to Federal procurement information.

(Conference report filed in House, H. Rept. 98-263)

Amends the Small Business Act to require the Secretary of Commerce to obtain notice of all competitive and noncompetitive civilian and defense procurement actions of $10,000 and above proposed by the Government and to publish notice of them in the Commerce Business Daily. (Currently, the Secretary is required to publish notice of civilian procurement actions of $5,000 and above proposed by the Government.) Exempts from such publication requirements those procurement actions where: (1) such procurement, for security reasons, is of a classified nature; (2) the need for the procurement is of such urgency that the Government would be seriously injured by time of publication; (3) a foreign government reimburses the Federal department for the cost of the procurement for such government and only one source is available, or the terms of an international agreement between the United States and a foreign government require that such procurement shall be from sources specified within such international agreement; (4) a statute provides that the procurement be made through another Federal department or from a specified source; (5) the procurement is made against an order placed under a requirement or similar contract, including orders for perishable subsistence supplies; (6) the procurement results from acceptance of a proposal pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 or an unsolicited proposal from an educational institution that demonstrates an innovative research concept and publication of such unsolicited proposal would improperly disclose the originality or innovativeness of the proposed research; or (7) it is determined in writing by the head of the Federal department, with the concurrence of the Administrator, that advance notice is not appropriate or reasonable.

Prohibits procuring activities, when required to publish notice of procurement actions, from: (1) issuing a solicitation for a procurement action until 15 days after publication of such a notice; (2) foreclosing competition under a procurement order until 30 days after the issuance of the solicitation or, in the case of orders under a basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or similar arrangement, after publication of intent to place the order; or (3) commencing negotiations for the award of a sole source contract until 30 days after the publication of a notice of intent to contract (provided that no Federal officer or employee shall be prohibited from responding to a request for information).

Sets forth the contents of the notices of Government procurement actions which must be published in the Commerce Business Daily.

Prohibits a procuring activity from entering into negotiations for the award of a sole source contract for more than $1,000,000 in FY 1984, $500,000 in FY 1985, or $300,000 in FY 1986 and each year thereafter unless: (1) the head of the activity has approved the proposal for such negotiation; and (2) the activity has considered all responses to the notice of the procurement action. Applies such provision to procurement actions initiated on or after October 1, 1983.

Requires publication in the Commerce Business Daily of all contract awards in the case of Government procurement actions in excess of $25,000 in which the award of a contract is likely to result in the award of subcontracts under such contract, unless the disclosure of such a contract would compromise national security.

Provides for the application of this Act to the Tennessee Valley Authority only to the extent it deems practicable.