Congress may limit executive order on contractor labor law violations

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have added language to the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act to give blanket exemptions to President Obama’s 2014 executive order on “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces.”

Under the order, federal contractors must report their labor law violations, if any, from the previous three years. The order applies to contracts valued at $500,000 or more. Vendors who had egregious labor law violations could be barred from federal contracting.

The Labor Dept. issued a proposed rule to implement the order in May of 2015.

While the White House describes the rule as a common sense provision to ensure ethical contracting, industry opponents call it the “blacklisting” rule.

The current House defense authorization bill would exempt all contractors doing business with the Defense Dept. or the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The Senate version would apply the rule only to defense contractors who have been formally suspended or debarred for violating one of the covered labor laws.

The White House has threatened a veto of the House bill because of the contractor exemptions from the labor law order, and also because of the addition of a provision exempting some federal contractors from civil rights protections for gay and transgendered people (see Set-Aside Alert article in May 27, 2016 issue).

More information: Federal Register notice: https://goo.gl/ypPeMF
Bloomberg BNA analysis http://goo.gl/wft2KB

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