§7105 Agency Boards

Summary

Creates boards that hear appeals about government contract disputes and sets rules for who runs them, how members are chosen, and what powers they have. The Department of Defense can set up an Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals if a workload study shows enough cases. That board must be full-time with at least 3 members, and workload studies must be updated at least every 3 years. Members for the Armed Services Board, the Civilian Board (run by the General Services Administration), and other similar boards are picked the same way as administrative law judges under 5 U.S.C. 3105 and must have at least 5 years of experience in public contract law. The DoD names the chair and vice chair for its board. The GSA Administrator appoints Civilian Board members from a register, with input from the Federal Procurement Policy Administrator, and must pick without regard to political party. Pay is set under section 5372a of title 5. TVA and Postal Service boards may also be created; TVA sets its own appointment rules and pays members the daily equivalent of the rates in 5 U.S.C. 5372a. Civilian Board members can be removed like administrative law judges under 5 U.S.C. 7521. The boards each get appeals from contracting officers for the agencies listed: the Armed Services Board handles DoD, Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA; the Civilian Board handles other executive agencies except DoD, NASA, USPS, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and TVA; the Postal Service Board handles USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission; other agency boards handle their own agency appeals. The Civilian, Postal, and other agency boards can also take certain Administrative False Claims Act cases referred under 31 U.S.C. 3803(d), though a chair may decline a referral if the board is too busy. Boards can give the same kinds of relief available in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims or under chapter 38 of title 31, run discovery and subpoenas, ask a federal court to enforce subpoenas, and punish noncompliance as contempt. Boards must offer informal, speedy, and low-cost dispute resolution, issue a written decision or other action on each appeal, and provide copies to the contractor and the contracting officer.