December 31, 2001—Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) praised the Bush administration for revoking the Clinton administration’s blacklisting regulation. “This regulation was nothing more than an attempt to implement a major change in labor law enforcement through federal procurement policy,” ABC President and CEO Kirk Pickerel said. The Bush administration’s action now restores the federal contracting procedure returning safeguards for fair competition to the process.
The Clinton regulation would have revised the Federal Acquisition Regulation requiring all federal contractors to certify in writing to a three-year record of “satisfactory compliance with federal laws, including tax laws, labor and employment laws, antitrust laws, and consumer protection laws” as part of a “satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics.”
Last December, ABC joined with The Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and Associated General Contractors in a lawsuit against the blacklisting regulations. The lawsuit was withdrawn when the Bush administration originally published a rule rescinding the Clinton regulation. For more information, contact ABC.
