31 U.S.C. § 6303
Section 6303 · Using procurement contracts
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case Chem Service, Inc. v. Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory-Cincinnati of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (1993)
Most recently applied in Parsons Evergreene, LLC v. Secretary of the Air Force (August 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
An executive agency shall use a procurement contract as the legal instrument reflecting a relationship between the United States Government and a State, a local government, or other recipient when—
(1) the principal purpose of the instrument is to acquire (by purchase, lease, or barter) property or services for the direct benefit or use of the United States Government; or
(2) the agency decides in a specific instance that the use of a procurement contract is appropriate.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The words “type of” are omitted as unnecessary. The word “decides” is substituted for “determines” for consistency.