On April 13, 2011, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved S. 498, the Independent Task and Delivery Order Review Extension Act of 2011. This bill extends the Government Accountability Office’s (“GAO”) protest jurisdiction over task and delivery orders under civilian agency procurements in excess of $10 million through September 30, 2016, aligning the GAO’s protest jurisdiction over civilian and defense related procurements.

Previously, on January 7, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (“NDAA for FY2011”), extending the GAO’s supplemental authority to hear protests of task and delivery orders in excess of $10 million, but only for Department of Defense (“DoD”) procurements. The legislative history of the NDAA for FY2011 did not explain any rationale for this incongruity.

The GAO was first given supplemental protest authority over DoD and civilian agency task and delivery orders by the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, Pub. L. No. 110-181. Under this act, the GAO’s supplemental protest authority was set to expire after three years on May 27, 2011.

S. 498’s companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R.899, was already approved by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 10, 2011. Currently, S. 498 and H.R. 899 await a vote by their respective houses of Congress.