B. Negative effects possible

Comment: One respondent wrote that requiring discussions could have negative effects, such as added Government and industry cost due to the significant increase in the source selection schedule and reduced solicitation and proposal quality due to a mindset that problems can be fixed during discussions.

Response: The JAT data demonstrates that procurement lead time is significantly extended when protests occurred. The second concern raised by the respondent, that proposals will be of lower quality, is unrealistic because the offeror that chooses to submit an inferior proposal always runs the risk of not making the competitive range and therefore not being considered for award.