Susan Collins: “my colleague from Oregon, Senator Wyden, and I have offered this amendment that will pull back the curtain on government…”

“my colleague from Oregon, Senator Wyden, and I have offered this amendment that will pull back the curtain on government contracts to rebuild post-war Iraq, one of the most ambitious reconstruction projects since World War II. The government already has awarded numerous contracts towards this purpose. These contracts provide for an enormous scope of goods and services ranging from capital construction to the administration of key air and sea port facilities to the rebuilding of Iraq's education and health systems. One contract even provides for such fundamentals as teaching local leaders about the basics of the democratic process. In all, billions of Federal taxpayer dollars are being spent. It is Congress's job to ensure that they are spent wisely and fairly. Our amendment would ensure that the basic facts regarding these and other contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq are publicly available. For those contracts that have been awarded outside of the usual process of full and open competition, our amendment would require that, within 30 days of entering the contract, the contract's price, the scope of the work to be performed, the contractors asked to bid, and the criteria by which they were chosen must be made known, through publication in the Federal Register. In addition, the agency head also would need to make publicly available the justification for awarding the contract on a basis less than the full and open competition standard.”