Labor restrictions in federal contracts assailed

Federal contractors and House Republicans Tuesday assailed a Clinton administration proposal that would require federal agencies to consider companies' labor relations records before awarding them contracts.

The administration plan would amend parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation that look at contractors' records on labor and employment laws. If a contracting officer at an agency determined that a company did not have a satisfactory labor record, the officer could deny the company a contract award.

The proposal, which Vice President Gore originally suggested at an AFL-CIO meeting in February 1997, drew immediate opposition from contractors' groups. They say the Clinton administration is trying to blacklist companies not in favor with powerful labor unions.

At a House Education and Workforce Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, representatives of the Associated General Contractors of America, the Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Defense Industrial Association protested Gore's proposal. In addition, several hundred companies have formed the National Alliance Against Blacklisting to fight the contracting rule changes.

"In effect, the Vice President stated the federal government would seek to endanger the livelihoods of federal contractors and their employees by imposing subjective litmus tests on federal procurement," said Peter Wert, a representative of the Associated General Contractors.

Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., who called the hearing, also decried the Gore plan.

"The proposals would gut the government's expressed procurement policy of remaining neutral in labor-management disputes, and, most significantly, effectively amend the penalty provisions of every federal labor and employment law without any consideration by Congress," Norwood said.

G. Edward DeSeve, acting deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, defended the administration's plan. He said the proposal would not change debarment or suspension rules contained in the FAR, nor would it affect contractors' procedural due process rights. DeSeve also noted that the administration has not officially proposed any rule changes. Once modifications are proposed, they will be subject to public comment through the Federal Register.

Since Gore originally proposed the pro-labor revisions, the administration has not taken any official action on the rule changes. Republicans made the changes an issue during Labor Secretary Alexis Herman's confirmation proceedings. This April, Gore announced that the Transportation Department would encourage transportation construction contractors to use "project-labor agreements." But plans for an executive order making the changes or an official proposal in the Federal Register have yet to develop.

At the hearing Tuesday, former Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator Karen Hastie Williams testified that the changes to the FAR are unnecessary. She said the FAR already gives contracting officers the authority to decide if a company has a satisfactory record of adhering to labor and workplace laws.

DeSeve said the changes are meant to clarify the FAR, which some contracting officers have told OMB is vague.