Senators try to block politics from procurement

A Senate panel moved June 17 to block information on political contributions from entering the government’s procurement process.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would bar any rule that forces companies that bid on federal contracts to say who they supported financially.

In April, the Obama administration had started circulating a proposed executive order that would require contractors to submit information about political contributions from companies and company executives.

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“The president’s proposed policy would give the appearance that federal government contracts are related to political contributions,” said Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been against the rule since it was initially reported.

In a Senate hearing in May, Dan Gordon, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, would not give his opinion on the proposed order because the order is only in a draft form. However, he did say the evaluations of companies’ bids should be objective, and would not be influenced by who or what a bidder supports.

Collins and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Contracting Oversight Subcommittee, offered the amendment to the authorization bill.

The House’s version of the bill also includes a similar provision against President Barack Obama’s draft executive order. The House passed its authorization bill in May.

The Armed Services Committee included several other procurement provisions in its proposed authorization act. It would:

• Cut $1.1 billion from operation and maintenance accounts for buying contract services. The measure would freeze spending on contract services at fiscal 2010 levels, comparable to the freeze on the civilian employee workforce. It also would institute other contracting reforms.

• Emphasize rules to gather better insights on a company’s past work with the government.

• Expand the existing cap on compensation amount for a contractor's executive. The provision was requested by defense officials.

• Require federal agencies to identify and eliminate improper payments. Specifically, the Defense Department would have to do a thorough review and estimate of payment errors, including the full range of transactions, and validate the accuracy of future payments before making them.

• Include additional resources for the DOD Inspector General’s office for its oversight of DOD programs.

Read more on what’s included in the Senate’s version of the authorization legislation.