DoD Authorization Bill Addresses Contracting Issues

Just before finishing work for the year, both the House and Senate passed a Defense Department authorization bill (HR-1815) that like an earlier-passed appropriations bill guarantees that functions employing 10 or more federal employees must be allowed to reorganize into a “most efficient organization” and that work can’t be contracted out unless the contractor bid was at least 10 percent or $10 million lower. Similar language was included in another spending bill already signed into law affecting other federal agencies. The authorization bill also bars DoD from breaking up functions in order to avoid threshold requirements applying to some contracting procedures. The clauses represent a pullback by Congress from some of the changes the White House made in 2003 to the federal contracting out guidance, OMB Circular A-76.