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Members of the House and Senate Introduce Legislation to Bar Administration from Inserting Politics into Federal Contracting

On May 27, Congressional leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives introduced legislation to prohibit federal agencies from collecting or using information about political contributions made by small, family-owned businesses or larger companies that wish to do business with the federal government. The “Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act of  2011” reaffirms the fundamental principle that federal contracts should be awarded free from political considerations and be based on the best value to the taxpayers. U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), and Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced the measure in the Senate. Senator Collins is the Ranking Republican on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which oversees federal contracting. On the House side, Representatives Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Tom Cole (R-Okla.), and Sam Graves (R-Mo.) introduced an identical measure. Specifically, the legislation would:
  • Prohibit a federal agency from collecting the political information of contractors and their employees as part of any type of request for proposal in anticipation of any type of contract;
  • Prohibit the agency from using political information received from any source as a factor in the source selection decision process for new contracts, or in making decisions related to modifications or extensions of existing contracts; and
  • Prohibit databases designed to be used by contracting officers to determine the responsibility of bidders from including political information (except for information on contractors’ violations already permitted by law).
The House approved an amendment by Rep. Cole 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 the political contributions of their companies, board members and contributions of affiliated companies and their board members. 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. In April, the administration drafted a proposed Executive Order requiring federal agencies to collect information about campaign contributions and political expenditures of any business or individual bidding on a federal contract before awarding the contract. 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 titled, “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