Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should immediately address issues relating to no-bid contracting.

1. Adds SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON USE OF NO-BID CONTRACTING BY FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY wherever appropriate

   Adds a section

   Inserted: SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON USE OF NO-BID CONTRACTING BY FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

   Inserted: (1) on September 8, 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it had awarded 4 contracts for emergency housing relief following Hurricane Katrina to The Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, California, Bechtel National of San Francisco, California, and CH2M Hill of Denver, Colorado;

   Inserted: (2) these contracts were awarded with no competition from other capable firms, and up to $100,000,000 in taxpayer funds were authorized for each of these contracts;

   Inserted: (3) in the midst of concerns about abusive and irresponsible spending of taxpayer funds, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged to re-bid these noncompetitive contracts, with Acting Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response, R. David Paulison, stating before the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs of the Senate that "[a]ll of these no-bid contracts, we are going to go back and re-bid";

   Inserted: (4) the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to reopen these 4 contracts to competitive bidding, and declared on November 11, 2005, that these contracts would not be reopened for bidding until February 2006;

   Inserted: (5) by February 2006, the majority of the contracts will have been completed and the majority of taxpayer funds will have been spent;

   Inserted: (6) large and politically-connected firms continue to benefit from no-bid and limited-competition contracts, and contracts are not being awarded to capable, local companies;

   Inserted: (7) according to an analysis in the Washington Post, companies outside the States most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the Federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction;

   Inserted: (8) the monitoring of Federal contracting practices remains difficult, with a report by the San Jose Mercury News stating "The database of contracts is incomplete. Information released by Federal agencies is spotty and sporadic. And disclosure of many no-bid contracts isn't required by law"; and

   Inserted: (9)(A) there is currently no Chief Financial Officer charged with monitoring the flow of all funds to the affected areas; and

   Inserted: (B) the task of financial management is spread across disparate Federal departments and agencies with inadequate oversight of taxpayer funds.

   Show 5 more inserted paragraphsShow less

   Inserted: (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should--

   Inserted: (1) immediately rebid noncompetitive contracts entered into following Hurricane Katrina, consistent with the commitment of the Agency made on October 6, 2005, before millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on irresponsible and inefficient spending;

   Inserted: (2)(A) immediately implement the planned competitive contracting strategy of the Agency for recovery work in all current and future reconstruction efforts; and

   Inserted: (B) in carrying out that strategy, should prioritize local and small disadvantaged businesses in the contracting and subcontracting process; and

   Inserted: (3) immediately after the awarding of a contract, publicly disclose the amount and competitive or noncompetitive nature of the contract.

   The amendment doesn't say where this goes; the clerk decides.

   Original wording

   At the appropriate place, insert the following:

Read automatically from the Congressional Record. Check the original before relying on it.

As printed