Federal contractors may be forced to offer employment to qualified service workers of the predecessor company under a proposed change to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The proposed non-displacement rule has too broad of a definition of “qualified” and may cause inefficiencies, according to the Professional Services Council.

Efficiencies would be “greatly reduced by inflexibly mandating—under threat of penalties imposed by [the Labor Department]—that nearly all successors must offer jobs to nearly all of their predecessor’s employees regardless of skill, qualifications, and job performance,” said Alan Chvotkin, PSC executive vice president.

Contractors also may have difficulty complying with the FAR change and the Labor Department’s non-displacement rule, PSC said.

Three federal agencies are leading a drive to create a government-wide FOIA Web portal for managing FOIA submissions, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Environmental Protection Agency, Commerce Department and National Archives & Records Administration are heading the effort to develop the internal FOIA processing system.

The new system will compliment FOIA.gov, a website of performance data run by Justice, the GAO said.

The Office of Management and Budget ordered agencies to take steps to eliminate unjustified reporting and paperwork burdens, including those that impact small businesses.

The steps could include reducing information collection amounts, retention or frequency; using “short forms;” exempting small businesses; simplying application forms; and reusing data.

By Sept.10, each agency should list at least three new initiatives. The minimum goals would be 50,000 to 2 million hours saved per year. While 70% of federal financial professionals foresee gains in switching to operational-expense-based budgeting from capital-expenditure-based budgeting, only 36% of federal IT managers are considering the change, according to a survey from MeriTalk and Brocade Communication Systems Inc.

Operation-based budgeting is viewed by specialists as a method that aligns with cloud computing.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, introduced a bill to end the contracting preferences given to Federal Prison Industries, known as UNICOR.

Currently, federal agencies must buy from UNICOR where it has a specified share of the market. Huizenga wants to eliminate that preference and require competition in most circumstances.

UNICOR ontracts have hurt small businesses nationwide, Huizenga told the House Small Business contracting and workforce subcommittee.