Russ Feingold: “today I am introducing the bipartisan Federal Contracting and Oversight Act. Every year millions of taxpayer dollars are…”

“today I am introducing the bipartisan Federal Contracting and Oversight Act. Every year millions of taxpayer dollars are awarded to contractors with a history of poor performance and misconduct because our federal contracting oversight regime, though well-intentioned, is broken. The problems in our contracting oversight regime were first brought to my attention by my constituents in Wisconsin, several of whom are small businesses that have suffered as a result of misconduct by a Federal contractor. In one case, a Federal contractor that has received over $6 million in Federal contracts failed to pay small businesses in Wisconsin that worked as subcontractors. Several years later, the Army finally barred the contractor from receiving Federal dollars, finding that the contractor had "a documented history of failing to pay subcontractors for services rendered pursuant to government contracts." We must ensure that these records of poor performance and misconduct are identified before federal contracts are awarded to contractors, not years later after the damage has already been done. As I studied the issue further, I learned that similar problems were widespread and well documented.”