ETHICAL Procurement Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The ETHICAL Procurement Act prohibits the Secretary of Defense from entering, renewing, or extending contracts or other acquisition agreements for goods or services from an entity if an officer, director, partner, or majority owner is a covered presidential appointee, Schedule C policy official, special government employee, or Senior Executive Service official. The same bar applies when an immediate family member of the President, a covered official, or a special government employee is an officer, director, partner, significant owner, or would receive a substantial financial benefit. The Secretary must issue implementing regulations within 30 days defining thresholds and procedures for identifying covered individuals and entities.
Who Benefits and How
Defense contractors without covered conflicts benefit from a procurement field less exposed to insider ownership or family financial conflicts. Taxpayers and procurement integrity advocates benefit from rules that restrict conflicted defense awards.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Defense contractors with covered officials or immediate family members in leadership, ownership, or substantial-benefit positions lose eligibility for covered Defense Department contracts. Department of Defense acquisition officials must screen ownership, leadership, and family financial interests and issue regulations within 30 days.
Key Provisions
- Bars Defense Department contracts with entities tied to covered executive-branch officials or senior officials.
- Restricts contracts when immediate family members hold leadership, ownership, or substantial financial interests.
- Requires the Secretary of Defense to issue implementing regulations within 30 days.
- Directs the regulations to define thresholds and procedures for identifying covered individuals and entities.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Bars the Department of Defense from contracting with entities tied to covered executive-branch officials, senior officials, special government employees, or their immediate family members.
Key Policy Areas
Defense, Government, Procurement
Primary Purpose
Bars the Department of Defense from contracting with entities tied to covered executive-branch officials, senior officials, special government employees, or their immediate family members.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- defense contractors without covered conflicts
- taxpayers
- procurement integrity advocates
Identified Costs
- defense contractors with covered conflicts
- Department of Defense acquisition officials
- covered executive branch officials
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Horsford (for himself and Mr. Cisneros) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
defense contractors with covered conflicts, defense contractors without covered conflicts
Positive-direction: defense contractors without covered conflicts
Negative-direction: defense contractors with covered conflicts
Department of Defense acquisition officials, covered executive branch officials
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Secretary"
- → Secretary of Defense
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A parent, child, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology