OMB to Testify at Thursday Hearing on President’s DISCLOSE Act Executive Order

WASHINGTON. D.C. – The White House last night agreed to provide Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy Daniel Gordon as a witness for Thursday’s Joint Committee hearing of the House Oversight Committee and House Small Business Committee, “Politicizing Procurement: Would President Obama’s Proposal Curb Free Speech and Hurt Small Business?”

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) had requested on April 27 that either OMB Director Jacob Lew or another OMB official testify at Thursday’s hearing. On May 9, Lew said he would be unable to attend citing a “a draft Presidential Executive Order” as the reason. Later that day, Issa and Graves objected to this refusal and stated that if OMB continues to demonstrate an unwillingness to cooperate fully with the Committee’s oversight function, they would be required to consider the use of compulsory process.

“Chairman Graves and I share a commitment to create a climate the promotes economic expansion—largely fueled by small businesses. Reviewing the impact of executive orders is essential to ensure our government meets these goals and puts the needs of these and other job creators and workers ahead of the goal of red tape and the restriction of political giving, an act long protected as free speech,” said Issa. “OMB made the correct decision in reconsidering its previous refusal to attend Thursday’s hearing. I look forward to Administrator Gordon’s testimony.”

“I am pleased that the Office of Management and Budget has decided to provide a witness to testify at this hearing,” said Chairman Graves. “There are a lot of small businesses who want to hear directly from an official from the Obama Administration about what many of them see as an additional, significant hurdle to participation in the federal procurement process through this proposed Executive Order. Both Republicans and Democrats believe that government contracts are supposed to be awarded based on merit, and protected from political considerations, and I look forward to hearing more about this from our hearing witnesses.”

Thursday’s joint hearing will focus on a proposed Executive Order mandating disclosure of political donations by government contractors as a condition to qualifying for a government contract, creating a political contribution “litmus test” in order to pursue federal contracts. This Executive Order is similar to legislation, known as the DISCLOSE Act, that Congress has refused to pass.

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