The Furloughed Fess Up

A show of hands was requested Friday during a The George Washington University Law School panel exploring legislation to improve agency handling of suspension and debarment of dishonest contractors.

The bulk of the audience numbering some 90 identified themselves as feds. But Associate Dean for Procurement Law Studies Dan Gordon, the former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, also elicited raised hands from many practicing attorneys and a few contractors.

Then a panelist suggested that this informal survey needed to reflect a new category—federal employees on furlough.

Two more attendees’ hands shot up, one confessing, “I’m not worried about it because I’m here going to school.”

Replied emcee Gordon, “Furloughs cause great pain for us as citizens.”