Federal Regulations
Trump Signs Measure Canceling Contractor 'Blacklisting' Rule
President Trump has signed legislation to strike an Obama administration rule that required federal contractors to report past violations of labor and workplace-safety laws.
In signing the measure on March 27, Trump called the regulation “a disaster” and a threat to U.S. businesses. Construction contractor groups hailed Trump’s action, which revokes what they had criticized as the “blacklisting” rule.
Using the Congressional Review Act, the House on Feb. 2 passed a resolution, by a 236-187 vote, to undo the contractor rule, titled the Fair Play and Safe Workplaces regulation.
The Senate on March 6 followed suit, by a thin 49-48 margin. The review act provides an expedited route to block final regulations within certain time periods after rules are issued and sent to Congress.
The contractor regulation had its roots in an executive order that President Obama issued in 2014 directing agencies to require firms seeking federal contracts to disclose violations of federal labor laws, going back three years.
The Labor Dept. and multi-agency Federal Acquisition Council last Aug. 25 issued a final rule and guidance related to the executive order. The regulation was to go into effect on Oct. 25, 2016. But a federal district judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction on Oct. 24, which blocked it.
Unlike the Obama executive order, the rule phased in some of the important requirements. Under the regulation, starting Oct. 25, 2016, the rule had required contractors seeking federal contracts of $50 million or more to disclose their labor-law compliance record going back one year.
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The “lookback” period was to increase to three years, by Oct. 25, 2018. The contract threshold was to fall to $500,000 by April 25, 2017.
Ben Brubeck, Associated Builders and Contractors vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, said in a statement, “The rule violated the due process rights of contractors by forcing them to report mere allegations of misconduct—which are often frivolous and filed with nefarious intentions by special interest groups—the same as fully adjudicated violations.”
The AFL-CIO supported the Labor Dept. rule and opposed the legislation that Trump signed. William Samuel, director of the AFL-CIO's government affairs department, said in a Feb. 1 letter to House members that the regulations "implement the common-sense proposition that companies wanting to receive lucrative taxpayer-funded government contracts should comply with the law and respect workers’ rights."
