The House approved an amendment by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) to the FY 2010 Defense Authorization bill that would bar federal agencies from requiring the corporate disclosure of campaign donations as a condition for getting federal contracts.
Passage of the amendment could deal a major setback to the Obama Administration’s efforts to make federal contractors disclose their political contributions. The amendment passed by a vote of 261-163. Twenty-six Democrats crossed party lines to vote for the amendment. AGC sent a letter to all members on Congress asking them to support the amendment. In addition, AGC signed on to an industry-wide coalition letter asking the same.
Rep. Cole, along with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), introduced on May 26 stand-along legislation that would also bar such disclosures and making them part of the procurement process.
AGC previously submitted testimony for a hearing held jointly between the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on Small Business entitled, “Politicizing Procurement: Would President Obama’s Proposal Curb Free Speech and Hurt Small Business?”
In addition, AGC raised similar concerns in a letter sent by CEO Stephen Sandherr directly to President Obama. That letter stated that the proposed EO, titled “Disclosure of Political Spending by Government Contractors,” is unnecessary, noting that there is no evidence to indicate that political contributions are influencing the award of federal contractors.
For more information, please contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org