purchasing

Iowa Resident Bidder Preference

Revised September 10, 2020

Title 1: State Sovereignty and Management
Chapter 8A: Department of Administrative Services
Section 8A.311: Competitive bidding – preferences – reciprocal application – direct purchasing

8A.311.1:
a. All equipment, supplies, or services procured by the department shall be purchased by a competitive bidding procedure as established by rule. However, the director may exempt by rule purchases of noncompetitive items and purchases in lots or quantities too small to be effectively purchased by competitive bidding. Preference shall be given to purchasing Iowa products and purchases from Iowa-based businesses if the Iowa-based business bids submitted are comparable in price to bids submitted by out-of-state businesses and otherwise meet the required specifications. If the laws of another state mandate a percentage preference for businesses or products from that state and the effect of the preference is that bids of Iowa businesses or products that are otherwise low and responsive are not selected in the other state, the same percentage preference shall be applied to Iowa businesses and products when businesses or products from that other state are bid to supply Iowa requirements.

b. The department and each state agency shall provide notice in an electronic format available to the public of every competitive bidding opportunity offered by the department or the state agency as provided in section 73.2, subsection 2. The department may establish by rule requirements relating to such notice. A competitive bidding opportunity that is not preceded by a notice that satisfies the requirements of this paragraph is void and shall be rebid. A request for proposals for architectural or engineering services may be posted electronically by a department or state agency.

8A.311.12:
The state and its political subdivisions shall give preference to purchasing Iowa products and purchasing from Iowa-based businesses if the bids submitted are comparable in price to those submitted by other bidders and meet the required specifications.

8A.311.21:
Preference shall be given to purchasing American-made products and purchases from American-based businesses if the life cycle costs are comparable to those products of foreign businesses and which most adequately fulfill the department’s need.

8A.311.23:
a. The state, through the department, shall give a preference to purchasing equipment, supplies, or services from or awarding public improvement contracts pursuant to subsection 11 to an Iowa-based business as provided under paragraph “b”, as appropriate, if the bid submitted is comparable in price to those submitted by other bidders and meets the required specifications. However, before giving the preference, the department shall confirm with the Iowa employer support of the guard and reserve committee that the requirements of paragraph “b” have been met by the Iowa-based business.

b. To receive a preference as provided by this subsection, the Iowa-based business employer shall have adopted policies beyond those otherwise required by law to support employees who are officers or enlisted persons in the national guard and organized reserves of the armed forces of the United States consistent with standards adopted by the Iowa employer support of the guard and reserve committee. To be eligible for such preference, an employer shall submit to the committee a copy of the applicable policies adopted by the employer and shall sign and submit to the committee a statement of support of persons in the employ of the employer who serve in the national guard and the reserves, recognizing the vital role of the national guard and the reserves, and pledging all of the following:

• (1) To neither deny employment nor limit or reduce job opportunities because of an employee’s service in the national guard or organized reserves of the armed forces of the United States.
• (2) To grant leaves of absence during a period of military duty or training.
  
• (3) To ensure that all employees are aware of the employer’s policies and the requirements of section 29A.43.

Title 2: Elections and Official Dutie
Chapter 73: Preferences
Section 73.1: Preference – conditions

1. Every commission, board, committee, officer, or other governing body of the state, or of any county, township, school district or city, and every person acting as contracting or purchasing agent for any such commission, board, committee, officer, or other governing body shall use only those products and provisions grown and coal produced within the state of Iowa, when they are found in marketable quantities in the state and are of a quality reasonably suited to the purpose intended, and can be secured without additional cost over foreign products or products of other states. This section shall apply to horticultural products grown in this state even if the products are not in the stage of processing that the agency usually purchases the product. However, this section does not apply to a school district purchasing food while the school district is participating in the federal school lunch or breakfast program.

2. All requests for proposals for materials, products, supplies, provisions, and other needed articles and services to be purchased at public expense shall not knowingly be written in such a way as to exclude an Iowa-based company capable of filling the needs of the purchasing entity from submitting a responsive proposal.

Title 2: Elections and Official Duties
Chapter 73: Preferences
Section 73.6: Iowa coal

It shall be unlawful for any commission, board, county officer or other governing body of the state, or of any county, township, school district or city, to purchase or use any coal, except that mined or produced within the state by producers who are, at the time such coal is purchased and produced, complying with all the workers’ compensation and mining laws of the state. The provisions of this section shall not be applicable if coal produced within the state cannot be procured of a quantity or quality reasonably suited to the needs of such purchaser, nor if the equipment now installed is not reasonably adapted to the use of coal produced within the state, nor if the use of coal produced within the state would materially lessen the efficiency or increase the cost of operating such purchaser’s heating or power plant, nor to mines employing miners not now under the provisions of the workers’ compensation Act or who permit the miners to work in individual units in their own rooms.

Title 2: Elections and Official Duties
Chapter 73A: Public Contracts and Bonds
Section 73A-21: Reciprocal resident bidder and resident labor force preference by state, its agencies, and political subdivisions – penalties

2. Notwithstanding this chapter, chapter 73, chapter 309, chapter 310, chapter 331, or chapter 384, when a contract for a public improvement is to be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, a resident bidder shall be allowed a preference as against a nonresident bidder from a state or foreign country if that state or foreign country gives or requires any preference to bidders from that state or foreign country, including but not limited to any preference to bidders, the imposition of any type of labor force preference, or any other form of preferential treatment to bidders or laborers from that state or foreign country. The preference allowed shall be equal to the preference given or required by the state or foreign country in which the nonresident bidder is a resident. In the instance of a resident labor force preference, a nonresident bidder shall apply the same resident labor force preference to a public improvement in this state as would be required in the construction of a public improvement by the state or foreign country in which the nonresident bidder is a resident.

3. If it is determined that this may cause denial of federal funds which would otherwise be available, or would otherwise be inconsistent with requirements of any federal law or regulation, this section shall be suspended, but only to the extent necessary to prevent denial of the funds or to eliminate the inconsistency with federal requirements.

4. The public body involved in a public improvement shall require a nonresident bidder to specify on all project bid specifications and contract documents whether any preference as described in subsection 2 is in effect in the nonresident bidder’s state or country of domicile at the time of a bid submittal.

Administrative Code
Title 11: Administrative Services Department
Chapter 117: Procurement of Goods and Services of General Use
Section 11.117.5: Exemptions from competitive procurement

11—117.5(3) c. Procurement of product manufactured in Iowa.
An agency may conduct a competitive procurement for a product that IPI manufactures or formulates if the competitive procurement requires that the product must be manufactured in Iowa. In such procurements, IPI shall be allowed to submit a bid to provide the product. If a vendor other than IPI is the lowest responsible bidder, the agency shall obtain written verification that the vendor’s product is manufactured in Iowa before making the award.

Administrative Code
Title 761: Transportation Department
Chapter 20: Procurement of Equipment, Materials, Supplies, and Services
Section 761.20.4: Formal advertising procedures and requirements

20.4(6) Recommendation of award.
b. Tied responses. Responses which are equal in all respects and are tied in price shall be resolved among the tied bidders by giving first preference to an Iowa bidder and second preference to the bidder who satisfactorily performed a contract the previous year for the same item at the same location. If the tie involves bidders with equal standing, the award shall be determined by lot among these bidders. A tied bidder or the bidder’s representative may witness the determination by lot.

Administrative Code
Title 761: Transportation Department
Chapter 20: Procurement of Equipment, Materials, Supplies, and Services
Section 761.20.5: Limited solicitation procedures and requirements

20.5(4) Award.
The award shall be offered to that responsible bidder whose response meets the requirements of the solicitation and is the most advantageous to the department. An Iowa bidder will be given preference over an out-of-state bidder when responses are equal in all respects and are tied in price.