According to the White House Middle-Class Task Force’s Feb. 26 annual report, the Obama administration is crafting a Responsible Federal Contracting Policy, also referred to as the High Road Contracting Policy, which will reshape the $500 billion federal contracting market.
Under the proposed policy, federal contractors would face the possibility of being scored based on compliance with existing labor, wage, benefit, tax, regulatory and environmental laws as well cost, past performance and their ability to meet stated contract requirements.
“The provisions outlined in media reports – as well as in documents from the Center for American Progress, big labor and other special interest groups promoting this policy – fly in the face of free and open competition,” said Geoff Burr, ABC vice president of federal affairs.
“Large and small nonunion construction contractors and their skilled employees – which make up more than 85 percent of the U.S. construction workforce – are the backbone of America’s construction industry,” Burr said. “These hardworking men and women have a decades-long track record of meeting and exceeding existing government-determined wage and benefit laws, such as the Davis-Bacon Act, and contracting standards in the best-value evaluation process unique to the federal government’s procurement of construction services.”
Few details are available regarding the High Road Contracting Policy and the administration has not said how it plans to conduct the scoring of federal contractors or how much weight those scores will lend to consideration of bids in the overall process. The administration also has not set a date for the final version of the proposal to be released, and it is possible that the policy could be issued as an executive order.
“The lack of transparency and accountability in the creation of this so-called High Road Contracting Policy signals the administration's intention to reward big labor while needlessly discouraging competition from quality nonunion contractors and their employees who have delivered to the government and taxpayers the best possible product at the best possible price,” Burr noted.
“This proposal may add yet another layer of bureaucracy in the federal procurement process, which will hinder rather than encourage job creation. With the U.S. construction industry already suffering from an unemployment rate of 24.7 percent – more than twice the national average – we call on the Obama administration to honor its commitment to transparency and fair government by soliciting feedback from the entire contracting community, rather than pandering to big labor,” Burr said.
The policy will affect all federal contractors, including the construction industry, and some reports indicate that the Department of Labor will create a new division to handle the additional work, although nothing has been confirmed by the White House or procurement officials familiar with this proposal.
For more information, contact Ben Brubeck at ABC,
brubeck@abc.org.