Steny Hoyer: “Let us cut to the chase here as to what this amendment is about and why these regulations came about. My friend and…”

“Let us cut to the chase here as to what this amendment is about and why these regulations came about. My friend and colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) mentioned the criteria here. "Responsible bidder: Necessary technical and financial capability, performance record, and business integrity and ethics." There seems to be a fear that somebody will make a subjective judgment. Well, the fact is that is a very broad criteria that is difficult to define. So what has been proposed? The administration is proposing that we have some definition of what ethics and integrity is. They simply say that that test of responsibility is the contractor's record of complying with the law. Certainly, we want our contractors to do that, including environmental laws, consumer laws, labor and employment laws, and other Federal laws, so that it will not be simply a subjective judgment as to what ethics and integrity are, but it will have some specific criteria to direct officials in overseeing whether or not somebody is a responsible contractor.”