Bill Text: NY S09697 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Makes it unlawful for a vendor to make, either directly or indirectly, any contribution to a statewide elected official, a candidate for a statewide elected office, or their authorized political committee, during a certain restricted period; requires a candidate, officeholder, or political committee that receives such contributions to return or refund the contributions forthwith; requires procurement contracts to contain a statement that the vendor awarded the contract has not made any such contributions.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-06-05 - referred to election law [S09697 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S09697-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9697 IN SENATE May 21, 2024 ___________ Introduced by Sen. MYRIE -- (at request of the State Comptroller) -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections AN ACT to amend the election law and the state finance law, in relation to campaign contributions by vendors The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The election law is amended by adding a new section 14-131 2 to read as follows: 3 § 14-131. Restrictions on vendor contributions. 1. For purposes of 4 this section, the following terms will have the following meanings 5 unless specified otherwise: 6 (a) "Procuring entity" shall mean: 7 (i) any state agency, department, board, bureau, division, commission, 8 committee, council, office, state university of New York, city universi- 9 ty of New York, or other governmental entity performing a governmental 10 or proprietary function for the state; and 11 (ii) any covered authority, as defined in section two-a of the state 12 finance law. 13 (b) "Vendor" shall mean any natural or legal person, business corpo- 14 ration, public corporation, professional services corporation, limited 15 liability company, partnership, limited partnership, business trust, 16 association, labor organization, religious corporation, education corpo- 17 ration, or not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of this 18 state, or any other state or foreign jurisdiction, seeking to enter into 19 a procurement contract with any procuring entity or the legislature 20 including: 21 (i) key employees, which shall mean officers, members of the board of 22 directors and trustees, and shall include the spouse or domestic partner 23 and any dependent children living in the same household as an individual 24 described in this subparagraph; 25 (ii) any subsidiary, parent corporation or affiliated company or enti- 26 ty thereof directly or indirectly controlled by the vendor; 27 (iii) any subcontractor of a vendor; and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10367-04-4S. 9697 2 1 (iv) any lobbyist hired by a vendor. 2 (c) "Restricted period" shall mean a period during which a vendor is 3 prohibited from making a contribution to a procuring entity. 4 (i) the "restricted period" shall commence the earlier of: 5 (1) when the vendor engages in lobbying, as defined by subdivision (c) 6 of section one-c of the legislative law, to attempt to influence the 7 results of a procurement; 8 (2) at the earliest posting, on a procuring entity's website, in a 9 newspaper of general circulation, or in the procurement opportunities 10 newsletter in accordance with article four-C of the economic development 11 law of written notice, advertisement or solicitation of a request for 12 proposal, invitation for bids, or solicitation of proposals, or any 13 other method provided for by law, regulation or executive order of the 14 governor temporarily suspending any applicable provision of law, pursu- 15 ant to his or her authority under section twenty-nine-a of the executive 16 law, for soliciting a response intending to result in a procurement 17 contract with a procuring entity; or 18 (3) when the procuring entity engages the vendor for the purpose of 19 entering into a non-competitive procurement contract. 20 (ii) the "restricted period" shall end either: 21 (1) where approval by the state comptroller is required: (A) six 22 months after the final procurement contract award and approval by the 23 state comptroller, for the recipient of the final procurement contract; 24 or (B) with the final procurement contract award and approval by the 25 state comptroller, for all others; or 26 (2) where approval by the state comptroller is not required: (A) six 27 months after the final procurement contract award and execution by the 28 procuring entity, for the recipient of the final procurement contract; 29 or (B) with the final procurement contract award and execution by the 30 procuring entity, for all others. 31 (d) "Procurement contract" shall mean any contract or other agreement 32 valued in excess of fifty thousand dollars, including but not limited 33 to, single or sole source contracts, purchase orders, amendment, exten- 34 sion, renewal, or change order to an existing contract, other than 35 amendments, extensions, renewals, or change orders that are authorized 36 and payable under the terms of the contract as it was finally awarded, 37 for an article of procurement. 38 2. It shall be unlawful for a vendor to make, either directly or indi- 39 rectly, any contribution, as defined in section 14-100 of this title, to 40 a statewide elected official, a candidate for a statewide elected 41 office, or their authorized political committee, during the restricted 42 period. Any contributions received by a candidate, officeholder, or 43 political committee during the restricted period, and prohibited by this 44 section, shall be returned or refunded forthwith. 45 3. Every procurement contract shall include a statement, as required 46 by section one hundred thirty-nine-m of the state finance law, certify- 47 ing that the vendor has not made any contributions to, or solicited any 48 contributions on behalf of, any statewide elected official, any candi- 49 date to statewide elected office, or their authorized political commit- 50 tee during the restricted period. 51 4. (a) Upon notification that a vendor has violated subdivision two of 52 this section or has failed to timely disclose accurate or complete 53 information to a procuring entity pursuant to section one hundred thir- 54 ty-nine-m of the state finance law, the vendor shall be presumed to be 55 non-responsible and the procuring entity shall consider this presumptionS. 9697 3 1 as part of their determination of responsibility, pursuant to subdivi- 2 sion nine of section one hundred sixty-three of the state finance law. 3 (b) The procuring entity shall, in its determination of vendor respon- 4 sibility, notify the vendor of the presumption in paragraph (a) of this 5 subdivision and provide the vendor with an opportunity to be heard prior 6 to making a final determination of responsibility. 7 (c) A procuring entity shall not award a procurement contract to a 8 vendor that is found non-responsible, unless the procuring entity deter- 9 mines that the award of the procurement contract to the vendor is neces- 10 sary to protect public property or public health or safety, and that the 11 vendor is the only source capable of supplying the required article of 12 procurement within the necessary timeframe, provided, that the procuring 13 entity shall include in the procurement record a statement describing 14 the basis for such a finding. 15 (d) Any award of a procurement contract subject to the provisions of 16 this section shall contain a provision authorizing the procuring entity 17 to terminate such contract in the event that the statement required in 18 section one hundred thirty-nine-m of the state finance law is found to 19 be intentionally false or intentionally incomplete. The governmental 20 entity shall include in the procurement record a statement describing 21 the basis for any action taken pursuant to such termination provision. 22 5. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the provisions of this section shall 23 not apply to a procurement contract between a procuring entity and a 24 vendor where the procurement contract results from such vendor being 25 designated by the legislature to receive funding for a specific program 26 purpose. 27 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 139-m to 28 read as follows: 29 § 139-m. Statement on vendor contributions. 1. For purposes of this 30 section, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 31 (a) "Procurement contract" shall have the same meaning as defined in 32 paragraph (d) of subdivision one of section 14-131 of the election law. 33 (b) "Procuring entity" shall have the same meaning as defined in para- 34 graph (a) of subdivision one of section 14-131 of the election law. 35 (c) "Restricted period" shall have the same meaning as defined in 36 paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section 14-131 of the election law. 37 (d) "Vendor" shall have the same meaning as defined in paragraph (b) 38 of subdivision one of section 14-131 of the election law. 39 2. Every procurement contract entered into between the state or any 40 procuring entity thereof and a vendor, shall contain the following 41 statement subscribed by the vendor and affirmed by such vendor as true 42 under the penalties of perjury: 43 "By submission of this procurement contract, each person signing on 44 behalf of any vendor certifies, that the vendor has not made any 45 contributions to, or solicited any contributions on behalf of, any 46 statewide elected official, any candidate to statewide elected office, 47 or candidates authorized political committee or any political committee 48 the officeholder or candidate exerts operational control over, during 49 the restricted period and as of the date of submission of this state- 50 ment." 51 3. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the statement required by subdivi- 52 sion two of this section may be submitted electronically in accordance 53 with the provisions of subdivision seven of section one hundred sixty- 54 three of this chapter.S. 9697 4 1 4. A procurement contract shall not be considered for award, nor shall 2 any award be made to a vendor who has not complied with subdivision two 3 of this section. 4 § 3. Paragraph f of subdivision 9 of section 163 of the state finance 5 law, as amended by chapter 1 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as 6 follows: 7 f. Prior to making an award of contract, each state agency shall make 8 a determination of responsibility of the proposed contractor which shall 9 supplement, as appropriate, but not supersede the determination of 10 responsibility that may be required pursuant to section one hundred 11 thirty-nine-k of this chapter or section 14-131 of the election law. 12 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that: 13 (a) procurement contracts for which bid solicitations have been issued 14 prior to the effective date of this act shall not be subject to the 15 provisions of this act; and 16 (b) the amendments to section 163 of the state finance law made by 17 section three of this act shall not affect the repeal of such section 18 and shall be deemed repealed therewith.
