The Department of Defense (DOD) has issued a final rule to prohibit the use of lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) source-selection procedures unless the circumstances satisfy eight criteria. The procedures direct contracting officers to avoid LPTA procedures for certain knowledge-based professional services.

In the 1998 movie Armageddon, oil drillers are launched into space to destroy a Texas-sized asteroid hurtling toward Earth. Their special skills are needed to drill a hole into the asteroid to plant a nuclear device that will destroy the asteroid and save Earth. Before they are launched into space, one of the drillers wryly remarks: “You know we’re sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon, and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it?”