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I support the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (S. 90) introduced by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

This legislation will curb waste and favoritism in federal contracting and ensure that taxpayer-funded contracts are awarded on sound principles that will deliver to taxpayers the best possible product at the best possible price.

Senator Vitter's legislation puts good policy over politics and ensures fairness and full competition in the federal contracting market. I strongly encourage you to protect taxpayers from costly special interests by cosponsoring Congressman Sullivan's Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (S. 90) in the 111th Congress.

Project Labor Agreements reduce competition, increase costs for taxpayers, and add layers of bureaucracy and red tape to federal construction projects. Creating a formal federal process for imposing these Depression-era mandates on construction projects may be a win for special interests, but it's a loss for workers, taxpayers, and small businesses hoping to compete for federal jobs.

It is a bit confusing why this initiative is being attached to a "Middle-Class Task Force" when the results are aimed at Big Labor and seems to be putting more federal contracts out of reach for the mid-sized and small contractors who are best able to infuse the crippled job market with immediate opportunities.

Just last year, the U.S. Department of Labor decided to cancel a Job Corps Center construction project in New Hampshire. Kline pointed to this as an example of the dangers PLAs pose to federal job creation and project efficiency. The New Hampshire project was canceled after a local contractor raised a legal challenge to the project's PLA requirement, arguing it was discriminatory and would disqualify most contractors in the state.

PLAs generally require federal contract bids to adhere to union work rules and wage scales and to pay benefits into union pension funds even when non-union workers - who will never benefit from these funds - participate in the project.

NAGC is opposed to forced Project Labor Agreements that have the result of denying federal contracting opportunities to small businesses.