AGC Comments on Posting Contracts Online ANPR

AGC submitted comments this week on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) issued May 13, titled Enhancing Contract Transparency. The rule presupposes that, given the direction the administration is moving with the president's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) memo, Transparency and Open Government memo, andOpen Government Initiative, as well as the Attorney General's new FOIA Guidelines and the Office of Science and Technology Policy's Open Government Plan, a requirement is likely forthcoming to post the text of contracts, task orders, and delivery orders online. In order to best be able to execute this future requirement, the rule asks for public comment concerning how best to implement a system of posting these documents online. AGC was pleased that the ANPR was concerned with facilitating the posting without violating statutory and regulatory prohibitions against disclosing protected information (belonging to either contractors or the government), but had serious reservations with the ANPR's conclusion that it may not be practical to apply full FOIA procedures in every case. AGC requested in its comments that FOIA procedures for protection of information be applied as the minimum standard of protection for disclosure of any text of the documents. AGC also provided a non-exhaustive list of information that the construction contracting community expected to be protected (and the accompanying regulatory citations that guaranteed their protection). AGC will continue to monitor the progression of this rule and fight to protect against the disclosure of sensitive and important contractor information. For more information, contact Scott Berry at berrys@agc.org or (703) 837-5368.