Changes are coming to Oregon’s public contracting code in the form of HB 2769, passed during the Oregon Legislature’s 2019 session.

As those familiar with Oregon’s public contacting rules know, under ORS 279C.110, contracting agencies are required to use a qualification-based selection process when choosing consultants to provide architectural, engineering, photogrammetric mapping, transportation planning, or land surveying services. In other words, public agencies are prohibited (with some exceptions) from factoring in price when evaluating responses to requests for proposals from consultants for the services listed above; proposals must be evaluated on the basis of qualifications alone. This means that a contracting agency has no information about what its chosen consultant will charge for services until contract negotiations between the two parties begin. ORS 279C.110 is an outlier in this regard—Oregon’s public contracting code permits (and in some cases, requires) contracting agencies to consider price when selecting providers of goods, general services, and construction services.