AGC Pushes Back Against Administration Effort to Block Senior Officials from Interacting with Employer Groups

On Nov. 14, 2011, AGC submitted comments to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on a proposed rule that would impose limits on a federal employee’s ability to attend meetings and events held by any organization that employs lobbyists, regardless of whether the meeting would hold educational value for the federal government. AGC is greatly concerned that the administration views employer groups like AGC as adversaries working to exert undue influence over federal agencies and their employees. AGC respects the knowledge and expertise of the career procurement workforce and believes strongly that the government significantly benefits from an honest and thoughtful discussion about procurement from both sides of the table. AGC is concerned that the proposed changes will result in poor public policy decisions.  Creating public policy in an airtight vacuum by disallowing open communication between the federal agencies, and AGC and similar associations’ members will limit the agency’s ability to respond to industry trends and innovations. AGC will continue to follow the proposed comments and urge OGE to withdraw the proposed rule as currently written. For additional information, please contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org.