In an effort to curb the desire of subcontractors to lower their
prices from what they proposed in their original bids to general
contractors, the American Subcontractors Association (ASA) is
pursuing the Construction Quality Assurance Act of 2001, which
would prohibit bid shopping on construction contracts with the
federal government. Bid shopping is defined in the bill as “the
practice of a contractor asking, requiring, or otherwise
pressuring a subcontractor to lower bids for subcontracts, or
accepting lower bids from subcontractors, after submitting a bid
without passing the savings from the lower bids back to the
federal government.  The proposed legislation would give the
government the power to prohibit bid shopping in the contract
bidding process and provide government contracting officers with
the ability to investigate incidents of bid shopping. If
ratified, the bill would also impose penalties for
noncompliance, including treble damages, cancellation of the
contract, and in some cases, debarment.