SBA has ruled that Federal Prison Industries is not eligible for set-aside contracts for services.

The decision in an appeal heard by SBA’s Area 2 Office of Government Contracting, was handed down in 2005 but went unnoticed, Government Executive magazine reported.

The case involved an appeal of a contract award to FPI for electronics recycling and disposal. The area office determined that the language in regulations and in the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act made FPI eligible for small business set-asides for products, but not services. FPI did not appeal the ruling.

The Defense Department’s small business specialists are no longer required to review set-aside contracts worth less than $100,000 under a new rule adopted by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Council. The Council said the specialists could better spend their time on larger contracts.

An unknown number of senators are blocking legislation to create a public website listing all federal grants and contracts, the newspaper Federal Times reported.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), is designed to allow taxpayers to quickly find out exactly where their money is going. The Bush administration supports it.

Under Senate rules, any member may place an anonymous “hold” on a bill, blocking a floor vote.

Federal Times also reported agencies have spent more than $400 million on GSA’s schedule for advertising and marketing services so far this year, 10 times as much as in 2001.

The newspaper said many agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the Defense Department, are developing new marketing efforts to recruit employees, because more than half the federal workforce is approaching retirement age.

But the Government Accountability Office has found some agencies engaged in illegal “covert propaganda” by distributing video news releases to television stations without identifying the source of the information.