Gavin Aronsen - No Disclosure, Please, We're Contractors
June 1, 2012 Earlier this month, the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee approved the Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act [1] (KPOFCA), which would prohibit the government from forcing federal contractors to disclose campaign spending and lobbying expenditures as a condition for keeping their contracts. In response, 14 watchdog groups are urging senators [2] to block the bill, condemning it as a "pay-to-play" political maneuver that would make it easier for corporations to peddle influence in the shadows.
The bill is the latest chapter in a debate over transparency for the companies that rake in more than $536 billion [3] in federal contracts annually. In April 2011, the Obama administrationdrafted an executive order [4] (PDF) that would have required corporations bidding on federal contracts to disclose any political spending greater than $5,000, including money given to dark-money groups such as the Chamber of Commerce that do not disclose their donors. Following staunch opposition from Republicans and the Chamber, President Obama hasn't acted on the order [5].
Meanwhile, a rider attached to the 2012 Omnibus Appropriations bill preempted the order by prohibiting the government [6] from requiring corporations to reveal their political spending as a precondition to bid on federal contracts.
Read More:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/federal-contractors-campaign-disclosure-kpofca
