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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
House Launches "Fighting Contracting Abuse" Caucus
CongressDaily is reporting ($) that a few members of the House of Representatives are forming the "Smart Contracting Caucus" to pursue what Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) called "thoughtful federal procurement reform." But Dan Friedman at CongressDaily isn't buying the spin:
Davis was a contracting lawyer and is the House's top backer of government contractors concentrated in his suburban Virginia district. He has long pushed to make contracting with federal agencies simpler for businesses. Since the 2006 election, Davis has negotiated with House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman and other Democrats to remove provisions from several House-passed contracting reform bills after they drew particularly vocal industry opposition. With Davis leaving Congress this year, the caucus appears in part an effort to institutionalize his role.
While I like that folks in Congress are paying more attention to the horrific problems we have in the federal procurement system (here's the latest), I'm not sure if Davis is the best person to be heading up this caucus. Considering his opposition at one point to legislation to prevent companies that owe federal taxes from being considered for government contracts, his original support of a spending transparency bill that did not disclose contracts data, and his support of the largest corporations regardless of whether they have broken federal contracting laws, it's probably good he won't be around next year. If he was, they would probably have to rename it the "Fighting Contractor Abuse" Caucus.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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