From The Associated Press, 3/16/07:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117404258573390.xml&coll=2

House votes to limit no-bid contracts

Jim Abrams
Associated Press


Washington --

The House voted to limit no-bid federal contracts Thursday, alleging
abuses and citing huge losses in contracts for Katrina recovery and
Iraq reconstruction.

The Accountability in Contracting Act was the last of five open
government bills the House passed this week under new Democratic
leaders critical of what they say has been the closed and secretive
nature of the Bush administration.

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, passed 347-73.

Ohio's Democrats voted for the bill along with eight Ohio Republicans.
Voting against it were Republicans John Boehner of West Chester, Jean
Schmidt of Miami Township and Mike Turner of Centerville.

The White House opposed the contracting bill, as it did most of the
other bills, saying it would complicate the administration's own
efforts to make contracting more competitive.

Democrats cited figures showing that federal contracts have nearly
doubled in the Bush years, to about $400 billion a year, and that
sole-source contracts, where there is no competitive bidding, grew
from $67 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2005.

Much of the criticism of no-bid contracts has been directed at
Halliburton, a giant oil services company once headed by Vice
President ***** Cheney that was given noncompetitive work to restore
Iraq's oil production.

In addition, Rep. Kathy Castor, Democrat of Florida, said post-Katrina
contracts worth $8.75 billion have been proven wasteful and sometimes
have included fraud.

The legislation would limit the awarding of no-bid contracts for
emergencies to one year, and would require agencies that spend more
than $1 billion a year on federal contracts to implement plans to
minimize use of sole-source contracts.

It also would require agencies to reduce the number of "cost-plus"
contracts that leave the government vulnerable to wasteful spending,
and would require that contract overcharges in excess of $10 million
be disclosed to Congress.

The bill sets limits on procurement officers dealing with their former
or future employers in the private sector.

The administration said that would restrain the government's "ability
to tap the technical expertise of federal employees who are former
contractor employees."

Rep. Duncan Hunter, Republican of California and former chairman of
the Armed Services Committee, denied that Republicans, when they were
in power, failed to exercise oversight over Bush administration
practices.

He also defended some no-bid contracts, saying, "When you are fighting
a war you need to move quickly . . . you don't give a six-month appeal
to the folks who lose competitions."

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Some Republicans continue to try to protect their corrupt sources of
campaign funds.

Harry