SIPS Act Mandates 'Plastic-Like' Durability for Federal Straws, Bans Flimsy Paper

The aptly named Stop Ineffective Paper Straws Act, or SIPS Act, is here to address one of modern life’s smaller but persistently annoying problems: the paper straw that disintegrates faster than your average work week. This bill targets specific federal agencies—like the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and the GSA—mandating that any straw they buy or provide must be “just as strong and durable as a regular plastic straw” (SEC. 2). In short, the federal government is done with soggy straws.

The End of Soggy Sipping at Federal Facilities

The core of the SIPS Act is a change in federal procurement rules. If you’re grabbing a drink at a federal building or facility run by a “covered agency,” you should no longer have to worry about your straw dissolving before you finish your iced coffee. The bill explicitly requires agencies to ensure that any straw provided meets the strength standard of its plastic predecessor (SEC. 2). This is a direct response to the widespread frustration that came with the push for less durable, single-use alternatives. For the thousands of federal employees and contractors, this means a small but definite upgrade in daily convenience.

New Rules for Contractors: No More Paper Mandates

This bill doesn’t just affect what the government buys; it affects how contractors operate. When a business bids on a contract with one of these agencies, they have to make three specific promises. First, they can’t provide any paper straws while performing that contract. Second, and perhaps more interestingly, they are forbidden from having any internal company policy that pushes employees toward using paper straws or punishes them for choosing plastic ones (SEC. 2. What Contractors Must Promise). This means even if a contractor has a corporate sustainability goal to use paper straws, they have to suspend that policy when working on a federal job. It’s a direct intervention into corporate policy, though limited only to the scope of the federal contract.

The Durability Dilemma: A Vague Standard

While the goal is clear—better straws—the method introduces a bit of a headache. The bill’s key requirement is that the straw must be “just as strong and durable as a regular plastic straw.” That phrase is doing a lot of heavy lifting. What exactly is the metric? Is it tensile strength? Time submerged in liquid? This lack of objective definition (Vague_Authority) means that agencies and contractors will have to use subjective judgment, which could lead to disputes or varied compliance across different departments. It also gives agencies a clear path to simply procure plastic straws or very expensive, high-tech alternatives, as long as they can argue paper straws fail the “durability” test.

For the paper straw industry and contractors who have invested in sustainability policies, this is a clear restriction (Negatively Impacted Groups). For the average person visiting a GSA-managed building or working on a military base, it means one less minor frustration in a busy day. The SIPS Act is a perfect example of policy addressing a very specific, real-world consumer annoyance, but doing so by introducing a vague standard and restricting existing procurement and corporate choices.