House leader seeks to block contractor ethics rules

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., plans to offer an amendment this week that would block the Clinton administration from implementing controversial ethical standards for private companies that want to bid on contracts with the federal government.

The revised proposed rules would require contracting officers to consider all "relevant credible information" when deciding whether a company can bid on a federal contract. They must give greatest weight to convictions or civil judgments against a prospective contractor for violations of antitrust, tax, labor and employment, or consumer protection laws, or any other federal or state felony conviction. Interested parties were given 60-days to comment on the revised rules.

Even though the administration made changes to the proposed rules, high-tech companies and other business interests have blasted them as an ill-conceived solution to a problem they say may not exist. After receiving hundreds of comments on the proposed regulations first released last year, the administration issued revised rules late last month.

Administration officials have said the regulations are necessary to clarify current rules in order to ensure that the federal government only does business with responsible companies.

Davis' amendment, which he plans to offer to the fiscal 2001 Treasury and general government spending bill, would ban the administration from using any money to implement the regulations until the General Accounting Office completes a study assessing the extent to which federal agencies have contracted with companies that have violated federal labor, environmental or tax laws. The House is scheduled to take up the Treasury spending bill later this week.

When asked why Davis is pursuing the amendment instead of continuing to work to fix his problems with the regulations, Davis spokesman David Marin said, "There has never been a compelling case made that these new rules are needed."

Thom Stohler, director of workforce policy with the American Electronics Association (AEA), added that industry "feels like the administration pretty much ignored" the concerns it raised when making revisions to the proposed rules. AEA and other industry groups have expressed support for Davis' amendment.

Marin also pointed out several problems Davis has with the revised regulations. For starters, the rules give "government agents the power to arbitrarily deem which contractor will be favored with a government contract," he said.