Pre-award debriefings
41 U.S.C. § 3705
in effect(a) Request for Debriefing.—When the contracting officer excludes an offeror submitting a competitive proposal from the competitive range (or otherwise excludes that offeror from further consideration prior to the final source selection decision), the excluded offeror may request in writing, within 3 days after the date on which the excluded offeror receives notice of its exclusion, a debriefing prior to award.
(b) When Debriefing To Be Conducted.—The contracting officer shall make every effort to debrief the unsuccessful offeror as soon as practicable but may refuse the request for a debriefing if it is not in the best interests of the Federal Government to conduct a debriefing at that time.
(c) Precondition for Post-Award Debriefing.—The contracting officer is required to debrief an excluded offeror in accordance with section 3704 of this title only if that offeror requested and was refused a pre-award debriefing under subsections (a) and (b).
(d) Information To Be Provided.—The debriefing conducted under this section shall include—(1) the executive agency’s evaluation of the significant elements in the offeror’s offer; (2) a summary of the rationale for the offeror’s exclusion; and (3) reasonable responses to relevant questions posed by the debriefed offeror as to whether source selection procedures set forth in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed by the executive agency.
(e) Information Not To Be Disclosed.—The debriefing conducted pursuant to this section may not disclose the number or identity of other offerors and shall not disclose information about the content, ranking, or evaluation of other offerors’ proposals.
(f) Summary To Be Included in File.—The contracting officer shall include a summary of the debriefing in the contract file.
Source: OLRC USLMURL: https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/95/xml_usc41@119-95.zipFetched: 6/5/2026