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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Federal Contract Bidding: It's Complicated
 Last week, we noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) played a role in killing the Air Force's deal with Boeing to provide tanker planes. Citing corruption in the original bidding process as the reason for his intervention into the deal, McCain said:
All I asked for in this situation was a fair competition...I never weighed in for or against anybody that competed for the contract. All I asked for was a fair process. And the facts are that I never showed any bias in any way against anybody — except for the taxpayer.
Hooray for fairness in contracting! A noble effort, indeed. Well, it would be, except that a number of McCain's "top campaign advisers" had lobbied for the firm - EADS - that won the contract after the bidding procedures were revised.
McCain finance chairman Thomas G. Loeffler and Susan E. Nelson, who left Loeffler's lobbying firm to be McCain's finance director, both began lobbying for Airbus's parent company in 2007, Senate records show. William L. Ball III, a former secretary of the Navy and frequent McCain surrogate on the trail, also lobbied for Airbus, as did John Green, who recently took a leave from Ogilvy Public Relations to serve as McCain's legislative liaison.
It is not clear what specifically the McCain campaign advisers did for Airbus. Lobbying registration documents list only "initiatives and interests regarding the KC-30 Aerial Refueling Tanker Program." Loeffler did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview.
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said the senator from Arizona and his advisers have done "nothing improper" in the tanker deal. "John McCain was never personally lobbied on this issue," she said.
Additionally, McCain has taken campaign contributions from EADS.
EADS' interest in the tanker deal is evident in the political contributions of its employees. From 2004 to 2006, donations by its employees jumped from $42,500 to $141,931, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. So far this election cycle, company employees have donated $120,350. Of that, McCain's presidential campaign has received $14,000, more than any other member of Congress this election cycle.
It may very well be that no special treatment was afforded EADS by McCain. The moral of this story, however, is that when it comes to government contracting, the devil(s) is (are) in the details. In a world in which bidding rules are not complex and uneven, lobbyists do not become employees of Senators (and vice versa), and policy makers abstain from taking money from potential contractors, awarding contracts to the "best" firm may be the norm, but that's not the world we live in. And when billions of dollars of federal funds are in the offing, only careful oversight and transparency will blunt the effects of arrangements like McCain's
Posted by Craig Jennings
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