Waxman: Competition “the Exception, Not the Rule” About half of federal contract dollars were awarded without full and open competition in 2006, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. But industry officials criticized Waxman’s figures as misleading. The report, “More Dollars, Less Sense,” says $206.9 billion of the $412.1 billion in 2006 contracts were either sole-source or limited-competition awards. It identifies $103 billion in sole-source contracts, a 43% increase from the previous year. Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, said, “The definitions and assumptions underlying the report’s allegations about ‘non-competitive contracts’ or contracts ‘awarded without full and open competition’ are misleading and simply wrong. “To further assert that every nickel spent under every one of those contracts represents tax dollars that were wasted or abused is patently unreasonable.” Industry officials said the use of sole-source contracts was inflated by the response to Hurricane Katrina and other emergencies, when there was no time to solicit bids. They said Waxman appears to be counting awards such as task orders on GSA schedules as limited-competition contracts. The report also appears to count set-asides in that category. The California Democrat asserted, “The rapid growth in no-bid and limited-competition contracts has made full and open competition the exception, not the rule.” However, officials of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy said competition in federal contracting has remained virtually unchanged over the six years of the Bush administration, with more than 60% of the dollars awarded competitively. (SAA, 6/29) The House has approved Waxman’s Accountability in Contracting Act, H.R. 1362, which would require agencies to minimize the use of sole-source contracts. Agencies would be required to publish their justification and approvals for sole-source awards over $1 million. (SAA, 3/23) The Senate has not acted on the legislation. The full report is available at http://oversight.house.gov/features/moredollars/moredollars.pdf.