Senators take aim at no-bid Iraq reconstruction contracts

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are teaming up on an amendment to the pending $87 billion Iraq supplemental that would prohibit funds from being spent under no-bid construction contracts.

The measure would require agencies awarding sole-source or limited-bid contracts to publish detailed justifications in the Federal Register for the lack of competition or forfeit funding under the supplemental. A no-bid contract awarded earlier in the year to Halliburton Corp., formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has come under scrutiny from Collins' panel and other lawmakers.

The $79 billion Iraq supplemental passed earlier this year earmarked $2.5 billion for reconstruction contracts. Iraq's chief civil administrator, L. Paul Bremer, testified this week that he would ensure contracts are competitively bid. But the Collins-Wyden amendment is aimed at closing a loophole in the Competition in Contracting Act that enables no-bid contracting in certain circumstances without proper justification, Collins said.

Collins and Wyden successfully offered a similar amendment by voice vote to the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, which is currently in conference. The latest amendment, which would be offered on the floor, "will show the American people we're really squeezing to get every bit of value out of this astounding, eye-popping sum of money," Wyden said.

Collins added she was pushing to refashion $15 billion earmarked for Iraq infrastructure projects into a long-term loan. While the idea has some support from conservatives, it has little traction otherwise and the White House and GOP leaders have been lobbying heavily for a direct appropriation.