Andrus v. Glover Construction Company
| Decision Date | 27 May 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-48,79-48 |
| Citation | 100 S.Ct. 1905,446 U.S. 608,64 L.Ed.2d 548 |
| Parties | Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al., Petitioners, v. GLOVER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Held : The Buy Indian Act, which permits the Secretary of the Interior to purchase "the products of Indian industry . . . in open market," does not authorize the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to enter into road construction contracts with Indian-owned companies without first advertising for bids pursuant to Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (FPASA). There is no such authority even if the Buy Indian Act's language "the products of Indian industry" could be construed to embrace road construction, since, while negotiated procurements "otherwise authorized by law" are one of the specified exceptions to Title III's broad directive in 41 U.S.C. § 252(c) that all procurement by the covered executive agencies (including the BIA) proceed through advertising, such exception is omitted from the list of the exceptions specified in § 252(e) to the requirement that § 252(c) not be construed to permit any road construction contract to be negotiated without advertising. From this omission only one inference can be drawn: Congress meant to bar the negotiation of road construction projects under the authority of laws like the Buy Indian Act. Pp. 612-619.
591 F.2d 554, affirmed.
Andrew J. Levander, Washington, D. C., pro hac vice, by special leave of Court, for petitioners.
D. D. Hayes, Muskogee, Okl., for respondent.
The Buy Indian Act, 35 Stat. 71, as amended, 25 U.S.C. § 47, directs the Secretary of the Interior to employ Indian labor "[s]o far as may be practicable," and permits him to purchase "the products of Indian industry . . . in open market." 1 The question presented in this case is whether the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the Department of the Interior 2 may, on the authority of this legislation, enter into road construction contracts with Indian-owned companies without first advertising for bids pursuant to Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (FPASA), 63 Stat. 393, as amended, 41 U.S.C. §§ 251-260.
In 1976, the BIA formally adopted the procurement policy that "all [BIA] purchases or contracts be made or entered into with qualified Indian contractors to the maximum practicable extent." 3 To effectuate this objective, the BIA announced that in every procurement situation it would consider dealing with non-Indian contractors only after it had determined that there were "no qualified Indian contractors within the normal competitive area that can fill or are interested in filling the procurement requirement." 4
In early 1977, the BIA invited three Indian-owned construction companies to submit bids for the repair and improvement of a 5-mile segment of road in Pushmataha County, Okla. The road, commonly called the Honobia Road, is located within an area subject to BIA jurisdiction. The respondent, a non-Indian corporation engaged as a general contractor in roadbuilding and other forms of heavy construction, was not afforded an opportunity to bid.5 On May 25, 1977, BIA awarded the contract to Indian Nations Construction Co., a corporation owned and controlled exclusively by Indians and the only Indian-owned company to have bid on the project. The final negotiated contract price amounted to approximately $1.2 million.6
The respondent then filed the present suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, naming as defendants the Secretary of the Interior, the Department of the Interior, BIA, and the BIA contracting officer on the Honobia Road project (petitioners here). The respondent alleged that the petitioners were required by § 3709 of the Revised Statutes, 41 U.S.C. § 5, and Title III of the FPASA to advertise publicly for bids on the Honobia Road project. The respondent further claimed that the actions of the petitioners had denied it due process and equal protection in contravention of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. As relief, the respondent re- quested the District Court to set aside the Honobia Road contract and to enjoin the petitioners from engaging in the unadvertised negotiation of contracts on the purported authority of the Buy Indian Act.
After the completion of discovery, the District Court granted summary judgment to the respondent. 451 F.Supp. 1102. The court concluded that the procedure followed by the petitioners in awarding the Honobia Road project to the Indian Nations Construction Co. violated the advertising requirements of the FPASA, in particular 41 U.S.C. §§ 252(e) and 253. 451 F.Supp., at 1106. The court rejected the Secretary's contrary administrative construction as inconsistent with the plain language of the FPASA. Id., at 1106-1108. Deciding in favor of the respondent on these statutory grounds, the District Court found it unnecessary to reach the respondent's alternative arguments under the Constitution. Id., at 1108. The court thereupon declared the road construction contract that had been entered into between the petitioners and the Indian Nations Construction Co. to be null and void, and permanently enjoined the petitioners from circumventing the advertising requirements of 41 U.S.C. § 253 in connection with the remainder of the Honobia Road project and future road construction projects. 451 F.Supp., at 1112.7
A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the judgment. 591 F.2d 554. Relying in large part on the analysis of the District Court, the Court of Appeals held that, whatever might arguably be the breadth of the Buy Indian Act standing alone, it had been pre-empted by the advertising requirements of the FPASA with respect to the procurement of road construction projects. Id., at 557-559. Alternatively, the Court of Appeals observed that it would "require a considerable 'stretch of the imagination' to conclude that the Congress intended the Buy-Indian Act to apply to road construction projects." Id., at 560. The appellate court believed, in short, that the Act's preference for Indian "products" could not easily be read to include the performance of a roadway construction contract by an Indian-owned firm. Id., at 562. In response to the petitioners' contention that the Buy Indian Act should be construed liberally to effectuate its remedial purpose, the court observed that "a primary, significant remedial feature of the advertisement and competitive bidding requirements of the [FPASA] is to obtain the best and lowest bid for the benefit of the American taxpayers in 'high cost' construction categories." Ibid. (emphasis deleted). We granted certiorari, 444 U.S. 962, 100 S.Ct. 448, 62 L.Ed.2d 374 to decide a question of importance in the proper exercise by the BIA of its procurement responsibilities.
The Buy Indian Act was enacted in 1910 as part of legislation that subjected the purchase of Indian supplies by the Department of the Interior to the strictures of § 3709 of the Revised Statutes.8 Section 3709, which had been in existence since 1861,9 required agencies subject to its provisions to advertise for bids on all but a few Government procurements.10 The purpose of the Buy Indian Act was clear. Purchases by the Department of the Interior of "the products of Indian industry" were to be exempt from any requirement of advertising for bids imposed by § 3709 of the Revised Statutes.11
The legislation of which the Buy Indian Act was a part was amended from time to time between 1910 and 1965, but none of these changes affected the substance of what had been enacted in 1910. The BIA, as was true of most other departments of the Government, continued to operate under a general mandate that contracts for supplies and services be let in conformity with § 3709 of the Revised Statutes.12 Sec- tion 3709, in turn, was recodified (41 U.S.C. § 5) and amended, but its basic mandate remained the same.13 Government procurement was to proceed through advertising for bids unless excepted by § 3709 or "otherwise provided" by laws such as the Buy Indian Act.14
In 1965, the law affecting BIA procurement was substantially modified. The regime of detailed contracting requirements contained in Title III of the FPASA, theretofore applicable only to the General Services Administration and to certain special procurements,15 was extended to cover the purchasing procedures of the BIA and most other executive agencies.16 See 41 U.S.C. § 252(a); 40 U.S.C. §§ 472(a), 474. For covered agencies, one consequence of this legislation was to substitute the advertising requirements set out in Title III of the FPASA for those contained in § 3709 of the Revised Statutes. See 41 U.S.C. § 260; S.Rep. No. 274, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 1, 5 (1965); H.R.Rep. No. 1166, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 7, 9 (1965), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1965, p. 4217; 111 Cong.Rec. 27198 (1965) (Rep. Brooks).
Under Title III of the FPASA, the BIA must now adhere to the broad statutory mandate that "[a]ll purchases and contracts for property and services shall be made by advertising . . . ." 41 U.S.C. § 252(c). From this directive, the statute specifically excepts only 15 types of procurements, the 15th covering situations where negotiated procurements are "otherwise authorized by law. . . ." § 252(c)(15) (subsection (c)(15)).
The Buy Indian Act is clearly a "law" within the contemplation of subsection (c)(15). As 41 U.S.C. § 260 expressly states: "Any provision of law which authorizes an executive agency . . . to procure any property or services without advertising or without regard to [§ 3709 of the Revised Statutes, 41 U.S.C. § 5] shall be construed to authorize the procurement of such property or services pursuant to section 252(c)(15) of this title without regard to the advertising...
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