---
kind: "section"
citation: "41 U.S.C. § 3706"
title: "41"
title_heading: "Public Contracts"
number: "3706"
heading: "Encouragement of alternative dispute resolution"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/41/3706"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Federal Procurement Policy"
  - "Division C — Procurement"
  - "Chapter 37 — Awarding of Contracts"
---

# §3706. Encouragement of alternative dispute resolution


The Federal Acquisition Regulation shall include a provision encouraging the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques to provide informal, expeditious, and inexpensive procedures for an offeror to consider using before filing a [protest](/usc/41/2101.md?p=6), prior to the award of a contract, of the exclusion of the offeror from the competitive range (or otherwise from further consideration) for that contract.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 111–350, § 3, Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3773.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 3706 | 41:253b(h). | June 30, 1949, ch. 288, title III, § 303B(h), as added Pub. L. 104–106, title XLI, § 4104(b)(3), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 645. |