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Government Contracting Accounting and Compliance Developments Conference
June 7&8, 2012
8:00 AM
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The Obama administration has not backed off its efforts to require contractors to disclose political campaign contributions when they submit contract bids. The initiative first surfaced in April 2011, when a draft executive order was circulated that would have directed agencies to gather information from companies about their political contributions.
However, Obama's most recent budget proposal did not make reference to the proposed rule. As normally is the case, administrations reference provisions they intend to keep, delete or even modify in appropriations bills. Leading some to believe that the effort to require contractors' political giving disclosures had been abandoned in the wake of congres blocking the proposal.
Republicans and Democrats alike disapproved of the requirement in the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which included a provision that blocks the disclosures with bids. President Barack Obama signed that bill into law in January.
The Office of Management and Budget has stated such an inference that such transparency efforts have been abandoned would be inaccurate, no conclusions about future actions should be reached.
The plan had sparked strong objections on Capitol Hill, leading to the introduction of several bills to block it, as well as congressional hearings. But in the administration's 2013 budget proposal, officials do not want to forbid agencies from collecting such information.
During one hearing in May, senators warned Dan Gordon, then administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, of the consequences of such a rule. Gordon would not comment on the proposal at the hearing because it was only in draft form. However, he said evaluations of companies' bids should be objective and should not be influenced by who or what a bidder supports. And if a company believes its bid was unfairly evaluated, he said the firm can file a bid protest.
