Defense bill includes major contracting reforms

Measure headed to President Bush’s desk would increase transparency and competition.

The House and Senate have approved a sweeping set of acquisition reforms, some of which had languished for nearly two years.

Provisions in the fiscal 2009 Defense authorization bill (S. 3001) would increase competition in contracting, tighten regulations on interagency procurements and mandate the establishment of a database to monitor companies that have faced criminal and civil actions. The House passed the bill on Sept. 24 and the Senate approved it over the weekend, sending it to the White House. President Bush is expected to sign it soon.

"This legislation says that Congress is serious about stopping waste, fraud and abuse," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said closer scrutiny of government spending was especially important given the current economic situation. "These reforms will restore competition as the cornerstone of federal contracting," he said.

The bill would mandate a scaled-down version of the much-debated contractor misconduct database, which would house information on nearly all complete criminal, civil or administrative proceedings against contractors with awards in excess of $500,000.

Republicans and industry groups opposed the idea, arguing that the information in the database might prove unreliable and should not be presented out of context. As a compromise, the provision's Democratic sponsors -- Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri -- agreed that only government officials would be granted access. The original bill would have opened the repository to the public.

"Congress is finally taking common-sense action to make sure that fraudsters and felons do not get federal contracts," Maloney said. "It's outrageous that until now we've had no central way to monitor contractor performance, allowing a handful of contractors to repeatedly violate the law yet still receive millions of dollars from the federal government."

The authorization bill also contains pieces of Waxman's Clean Contracting Act, including a one-year limit on sole-source emergency procurements, a prohibition on excessive layering of subcontracts and a requirement for more competition for multiple award contracts.

In addition, the legislation calls for increased scrutiny of cost-reimbursement contracts, which Democrats have criticized as prone to abuse. Inspectors general would have to issue an annual report to Congress that includes the total number and value of their agencies' cost-reimbursement contracts and an assessment of how well such contracts are regulated.

The Office of Management and Budget would be required to increase its oversight of interagency acquisitions, including their frequency of use, management controls, cost-effectiveness and savings generated. All multiagency contracts would have to assign responsibility for management. Officials would have to explain why the contract is the best procurement alternative and present a business case.

A number of key contracting provisions that originated in the Senate, including the creation of a Contingency Contracting Corps, also made it into the final bill. The corps would deploy during emergencies, national disasters or contingency operations within and outside the United States. Membership would be voluntary and open to all federal and military acquisition professionals.

The bill addresses the depleted acquisition workforce as well. OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Federal Acquisition Institute would be required to prepare an acquisition workforce development strategic plan to increase the size of the contracting workforce and create a governmentwide acquisition intern program. The strategy would have to include a specific and actionable five-year implementation plan.

OFPP would be required for the first time to develop a governmentwide policy on personal conflicts of interest by contract employees who perform jobs closely associated with inherently governmental functions. OMB would have to establish a consistent definition of inherently governmental activities.

"The federal government's prodigious purchasing creates abundant opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Whether the problem is purchases of unusable trailers for hurricane victims or shoddy construction of schools and clinics in Iraq or Afghanistan, we must do a better job of protecting taxpayer dollars and delivering better results."

A number of controversial provisions did not make it into the final bill. A House amendment that would suspend all public-private competitions at the Defense Department for the next three years was scrapped as was a ban on private interrogators in U.S. military detention facilities.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.