House Votes to Limit No-Bid Contracts [passed 347-73]

[Purveyor]

(03-15) 11:59 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The House voted to limit no-bid federal contracts Thursday, alleging abuses and citing huge losses in contracts for Katrina recovery and Iraq reconstruction.

The Accountability in Contracting Act was the last of five open government bills the House passed this week under new Democratic leaders critical of what they say has been the closed and secretive nature of the Bush administration.

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, passed 347-73

The White House opposed the contracting bill, as it did most of the other bills, saying it would complicate the administration's own efforts to make contracting more competitive.

Democrats cited figures showing that federal contracts have nearly doubled in the Bush years, to about $400 billion a year, and that sole-source contracts, where there is no competitive bidding, grew from $67 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2005.

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/15/national/w115950D64.DTL

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Excellent!

[maddezmom]

2. K&R

:kick: Well done!!

[William769]

3. Thats our do nothing Congress for ya!

:sarcasm:

[bdamomma]

4. the House is getting business done, now the Senate that's

another story.

[paparush]

5. LIMIT??????????????

[youngdem]

7. Yes. There are some instances where no-bid contracts are essential

For example, if a hurricane strikes and wipes out an essential bridge essential for the nation's commerce, and the road needed to be built to secure our nation's energy (as with the I-12 bridge and the Golden Meadow Hwy to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Platform). If we waited for the bid process, we would still be waiting for a bid selection, perhaps. Instead, they're well underway on the bridge, and there are enormous penalties for failure to reach benchmarks and incentives for finishing early.

This same system is what built the section of the I-5 double decker loop in Frisco after the earthquake. The state got the highway back in months, the citizens got their road back two years ahead of schedule, and the state got a deal quickly, and paid a $30M bonus (which they would have lost to inflation waiting on the bid system to perform).

[R_M]

6. Of course the Whitehouse opposes this bill.

With this bill, they cannot fill the pocket of Halliburton.

[il_lilac]

8. does this make sense?

"The White House opposed the contracting bill, as it did most of the other bills, saying it would complicate the administration's own efforts to make contracting more competitive."

I didn't think "competitive" was part of their plan. Was Walter Reed's outsourcing a bid?

[Doctor Cynic]

10. Why can't they be honest?

I mean, who the hell other than themselves in their right minds think that no-bid contracts are competitive? If they oppose this bill, they should at least be honest why.

"Mr. Secretary, why does the president oppose limiting no-bid contracts?"

"Sir, the president believes that agreements between Halliburton Incorporated and the George W. Bush Presidential Campaign of 2004 must be honored, and this bill sends the wrong signal to those who seek legitimate and legal business practices. Who has the next question?"

[MasonJar]

9. Hallelujah! Thanks, dems! n/t

[dEMOK]

11. About friggin' time!... n-t

[I_Make_Mistakes]

12. The key thing here is, the emergency clause is only effective for

1 year, after that is must be re-bid. I have to agree that there are emergency situations, and only a few employers are available to act immediately (maybe, we should change that with competitors to Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater etc.).

Did the part were, if illegal employees were found to be hired they would lose the ability to contract with the US Gov't for 5 years pass. This may be good, because I saw a story where a Jordanian company (subcontractor for KBR, I believe) was tricking Nepalese (IRRC) into employment and sending them to Iraq (withholding their passports, so they could not leave).

Their are a lot of bad things going on with these no bid contracts.