Senate Bill S6397

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S6397

SPONSOR: KAPLAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the economic development law, in relation to the
publishing of certain procurement contract opportunities; and providing
for the repeal of such provisions upon the expiration thereof

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation would shorten the timeframe to at least five days that
the notice of procurement opportunities must be made available as it
relates to the COVID-19 pandemic small business recovery grant program.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Section 142 of the economic development law by adding a
new Section 1-a which would notwithstand other provisions of law related
to procurement contract opportunities that are required to effectuate
the COVID-19 pandemic small business recovery program (Section sixteen-
              

ff of section one of the Urban Development Corporation Act) to allow for
the notice to be available for at least five days on the internet.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This legislation seeks to set a five day timeframe for procurement
review as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic small business recovery
grant program. Current law requires a fifteen business day timeframe
that will slow down the process of getting this critical program up and
running as quickly as possible. Due to the technical and detailed nature
of the act, the number of contractors that could undertake such a
project are limited, and it is incredibly likely that those who are
interested in procuring this contract are anticipating their bid, are
ready to bid, and do not need a longer timeframe to organize their bid.
This narrowly limited bill takes into account the very real circum-
stances that every day small businesses do not have access to this
money, their likelihood of going out of business increases. In order to
save our small businesses this truncated timeframe is justified and
necessary to get assistance out the door as quickly as possible for this
specific program.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed
repealed on July 31, 2021.