Sen Snowe Asks: Are Agencies Complying With Bundling Policy? Senate Small Business Committee Chair Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has asked agencies to report on how they are monitoring compliance with President Bush’s anti-bundling initiative. “I have received reports that several agencies may not be in compliance with certain requirements of the plan,” she said. She did not identify the agencies. In a March 31 letter, Snowe asked Robert Burton, acting administration of OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy, to “identify what specific steps you have taken to establish appropriate metrics to monitor and measure agency efforts to comply with the President’s plan, and hold agencies accountable for improving small business participation in Federal procurement.” The senator sent similar letters to all agencies. She asked for a response by April 16. In a final rule published Oct. 20, the administration required agencies to justify their actions when they combine two or more existing contracts into a larger one, but the rule contains no enforcement mechanism beyond an appeal to the agency head. The rule requires agencies to explore alternatives to bundling and to provide written justification of any bundled contract above specific thresholds: $7 million for the Defense Department; $5 million for NASA and the Energy Department; and $2 million for all other agencies. It also requires bundling reviews and justifications for orders through GSA schedules and other multiple award contracts above the thresholds. The Federal Acquisition Regulation councils said, “The proposed language is intended to require agencies to fully investigate all alternatives to bundling during the acquisition planning stage.” Critics have questioned whether agencies’ small business specialists and offices of small and disadvantaged business utilization have sufficient resources to enforce the prohibition against unjustified bundling.