Sean Patrick Maloney: “traditionally, the Defense Authorization Act has been a bipartisan bill. Unfortunately, this year the majority has added…”

“traditionally, the Defense Authorization Act has been a bipartisan bill. Unfortunately, this year the majority has added highly controversial provisions to the bill regarding civil services law, contracting, environmental exemptions, and nuclear weapons policy. As we all know, there has been significant controversy over the process of awarding contracts in Iraq, I would like to highlight one provision in the Defense authorization bill that adds much needed sunshine to the Iraq rebuilding effort (section 1456). I thank the Government Reform and Armed Services Committee members for including this section. In a markup of H.R. 1837, the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003, I offered this public disclosure language in the form of an amendment. It was unanimously accepted by the House Government Reform Committee. H.R. 1837 was referred to House Armed Services and included in H.R. 1588, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2004. In the House Armed Services Committee, the Iraqi sunshine amendment was also offered by Mr. Snyder of Arkansas. I thank Mr. Snyder for his hard work. The amendment was accepted and included in an en bloc amendment to H.R. 1588. The amendment, now section 1456, will ensure that agencies entering into a contract for the repair, maintenance, or construction of the infrastructure in Iraq without full and open competition, publish details regarding the contract. This section is very simple.…”