124 STAT. 3771 PUBLIC LAW 111–350—JAN. 4, 2011 award to the successful bidder. Within 3 days after the date of contract award, the executive agency shall notify, in writing or by electronic means, each bidder not awarded the contract that the contract has been awarded. § 3703. Competitive proposals (a) EVALUATION AND AWARD.—An executive agency shall evaluate competitive proposals in accordance with section 3701(a) of this title and may award a contract— (1) after discussions with the offerors, provided that written or oral discussions have been conducted with all responsible offerors who submit proposals within the competitive range; or (2) based on the proposals received and without discussions with the offerors (other than discussions conducted for the purpose of minor clarification), if, as required by section 3306(b)(2)(B)(i) of this title, the solicitation included a state- ment that proposals are intended to be evaluated, and award made, without discussions unless discussions are determined to be necessary. (b) LIMIT ON NUMBER OF PROPOSALS.—If the contracting officer determines that the number of offerors that would otherwise be included in the competitive range under subsection (a)(1) exceeds the number at which an efficient competition can be conducted, the contracting officer may limit the number of proposals in the competitive range, in accordance with the criteria specified in the solicitation, to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the offerors rated most highly in accordance with those criteria. (c) CRITERIA FOR AWARDING CONTRACT.—Except as otherwise pro- vided in section 3701(b) of this title, the executive agency shall award a contract with reasonable promptness to the responsible source whose proposal is most advantageous to the Federal Govern- ment, considering only cost or price and the other factors included in the solicitation. (d) NOTICE OF AWARD.—The executive agency shall award the contract by transmitting, in writing or by electronic means, notice of the award to that source and, within 3 days after the date of contract award, shall notify, in writing or by electronic means, all other offerors of the rejection of their proposals. § 3704. Post-award debriefings (a) REQUEST FOR DEBRIEFING.—When a contract is awarded by the head of an executive agency on the basis of competitive pro- posals, an unsuccessful offeror, on written request received by the agency within 3 days after the date on which the unsuccessful offeror receives the notification of the contract award, shall be debriefed and furnished the basis for the selection decision and contract award. (b) WHEN DEBRIEFING TO BE CONDUCTED.—The executive agency shall debrief the offeror within, to the maximum extent practicable, 5 days after receipt of the request by the executive agency. (c) INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED.—The debriefing shall include, at a minimum— (1) the executive agency’s evaluation of the significant weak or deficient factors in the offeror’s offer; (2) the overall evaluated cost and technical rating of the offer of the contractor awarded the contract and the overall
