Political Quotes

“I rise today to ask my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 37, a resolution disapproving of the Federal Acquisition Regulation issued by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. As is the case in so many of these rules and regulations, it has a really nice name. It sounds really good--the fair pay and safe workplaces rule--but the bottom line is, because of the substance of this rule, it has become commonly known as ``the blacklisting rule.'' Had it been up to me, I would have called it ``the blackmailing rule.'' Let me explain why. It requires contractors and subcontractors submitting bids on Federal Government contracts to disclose any proven or alleged violations within the last 3 years of 14 different labor laws, plus ``equivalent State laws.'' Now, that may sound reasonable, but it is not. And it is entirely unnecessary. Any competent purchasing manager--again, I come from the private sector, and there are a lot of competent purchasing managers-- could readily obtain the information required by this regulation. And, of course, any competent purchasing manager should also always be evaluating the qualifications, integrity, and the past performance record of any kind of potential suppliers. This rule also has the very real potential of subjecting perfectly innocent contractors to blackmail and extortion tactics during union contract negotiations.…”