Senator seeks to relax small business contracting guidelines

[The Straight Story]

Senator seeks to relax small business contracting guidelines

By Peter Cohn, CongressDaily
A rider attached to the $82 billion fiscal 2005 supplemental spending bill, slated for final passage Tuesday by the Senate, might pave the way for relaxed Energy Department standards for compliance with federal small business contracting requirements, a provision that has small business advocates up in arms.

While watered down from an initial version -- instead of amending the Small Business Act, the provision would direct the agency and the Small Business Administration to enter into an agreement by Sept. 30 -- critics remain baffled by the provision's inclusion in an emergency bill, largely to fund military personnel and equipment needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some are calling into question the timing and motivation of the provision's sponsor, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who pushed and prodded until the issue was among a handful of final sticking points on the emergency appropriations measure.

The Energy Department is preparing to accept a bid in October for a contract to run maintenance and operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Domenici's home state of New Mexico. Some of the agency's largest contractors, including potential bidders for the Los Alamos contract, have lobbied for the provision, according to people involved in the discussions.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0505/051005cdam1.htm

[w4rma]

1. Republicans are *not* pro-buisness. They are pro-BIG-buisness, only. (nt)