The fight over contractor pay caps is not finished. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, and Charles Grassley, R-IA, have introduced legislation to cap contractors’ allowable costs for executive compensation at $400,000.

Last year Congress left the cap unchanged at almost $694,000, but expanded its reach to cover all employees of defense contractors, not just the five top executives. President Obama had proposed a $200,000 limit, approximately equal to the salaries of Cabinet officers.

Grassley said, “There’s no justification for these payments to be higher than the salary of the president of the United States.”

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to make it easier for small companies to go public. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act passed 390 to 23.

The bill would lift SEC restrictions on advertising for investors and permit “crowd funding” so companies can raise equity capital from larger pools of small investors. Small companies would be able to sell up to $50 million in a public stock offering before having to register with the SEC and could have as many as 1,000 shareholders, twice as many as currently allowed.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro warned that the bill significantly weakens protections for investors. Two Harvard faculty members also warned that the bill goes too far in loosening regulations. Writing in the Washington Post, John Coates and Robert Pozen said the crowd-funding provisions “would make it easier for future Bernie Madoffs to create, say, 50 fake firms, steal $50 million from unsuspecting investors and retire to a tropical island.”

The JOBS Act has White House support. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said he would try to move the bill through the upper chamber.

About 20% of 8(a) contract dollars went for construction in 2011, according to an analysis of procurement data by Federal Times.

Construction—including institutional and industrial buildings and heavy and civil engineering—was the largest category of 8(a) contracts. That is in line with previous years’ results.

SAIC avoided possible debarment from federal contracting by agreeing to pay $500 million to settle fraud charges involving a contract with the city of New York.

SAIC’s chief executive, John Jumper, acknowledged that its CityTime contract to computerize the city’s payroll “became a vehicle for fraud perpetrated by two former SAIC employees conspiring with others not in the company.” SAIC pleaded not guilty to federal charges and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, which means the charges will be dropped if the company stays out of trouble with the law for three years.

Most of the $500 million settlement with federal prosecutors will be turned over to the city. New York had paid more than $650 million to the company; the New York Times reported that was 10 times the original cost estimate for the project. But Jumper said SAIC built a system that works.