May 19, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E 1079

to the protest or dispute to attempt to resolve the matter through use of an alternate

method of dispute resolution.

Section 423—Contract disputes

The section would provide that the Board

have jurisdiction over contract disputes as

provided by section 8(a) of the Contract Disputes Act.

Section 424—Protests

The section would provide that the Board

shall review contracting officer decisions alleged by an interested party to violate statute or regulation and that in deciding protests the Board may consider all relevant

evidence. The section would also provide

that facts found by contracting officers and

determinations made by them be presumed

correct and that the Board may find that a

contracting officer decision violates a statute or regulation for the reasons stated in 5

USC 706(2).

Further the section would provide procedures for the suspension by the Board of the

agency’s authority to conduct a procurement

in protests filed before award and for the suspension of performance in protests filed after

award. The section would set forth procedures for discovery of relevant material and

for Board proceedings, including the use simplified rules for protests of procurements

below $1,000,000 and the dismissal and payment of costs for frivolous protests. Finally,

among other things, the section would provide for the corrective actions to be ordered

by the Board and for the Board’s authority

to declare the entitlement of a prevailing

party to its protest costs.

Section 425—Applicability to contracts for commercial items

The section would provide that the authority conferred on the Board by this Title is

applicable to procurements for commercial

items.

Subtitle D—Repeal of Other Statutes

Authorizing Administrative Protests

Section 431—Repeals

The section would provide repeal the current statutory authority for the GSBCA and

for the GAO bid protest function.

Subtitle E—Transfers and Transitional,

Savings, and Conforming Provisions

Section 441—Transfer and allocation of appropriations and personnel

The section would provide for the transfer

of assets, etc. and the rules for the transfer

of agency boards of contract appeal and relevant GAO personnel to the Board.

Section 442—Terminations and savings provisions

The section would provide the rules for affect on proceedings before the agency boards

and GAO.

Section 443—Contract disputes authority of

board

The section would provide conforming

amendments needed by the establishment of

the Board regarding the contract disputes.

Section 444—References to agency boards of

contract appeals

The section would provide that any reference to an agency board of contract appeals shall be treated as to the Board.

Section 445—Conforming amendments

The section would provide for the necessary conforming amendments.

Subtitle F—Effective Date; Interim Appointment

and Rules

Section 451—Effective date

The section would provide for an effective

date of October 1, 1996 for this Title.

Section 452—Interim appointment

The section would provide for the current

chairman of the GSBCA to serve as the

Chairman of the Board for 2 years.

Section 453—Interim rules

The section would provide for the rules of

procedure of the GSBCA to apply to the

Board until the Board promulgates its procedural rules and that the rules of the Armed

Services Board of Contract Appeals regarding Board judges apply until relevant Board

rules are promulgated.

Title V—Effective Dates and

Implementation

Section 501—Effective Date and Applicability

The section would provide that the Act

would take effect on the date of enactment,

except as otherwise provided in Act and that

the amendments made by the Act would take

effect on the date provided in the final implementing regulations or October 1, 1996,

whichever is earlier.

Section 502—Implementing regulations

The section would provide a schedule for

the promulgation of the implementing regulations.

EAGLE SCOUT AWARD

fHON. ROBERT E. ANDREWS OF NEW JERSEY

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, May 18, 1995

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

express my congratulations to Armando

Lopez, the first Hispanic-American to achieve

the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scout

Camden County Council of New Jersey. Mr.

Lopez is a shining example of the creativity

and spirit that exists in our future leaders. He

chose as his Eagle Scout project to build a

patio around a shrine for Our Lady of Mount

Carmel-Fatima Church in Camden. What was

supposed to be a brick patio has turned into

an enclosed garden and a gathering place for

all who live in the area. It is now used by the

community for prayer, weddings, school ceremonies, and sanctuary. Armando has spent

many months on this project, through the winter and spring and has truly displayed the

dedication to become a leader in the community. He will not be ending his scouting career

soon, for he has been chosen to represent the

United States at the 18th World Scout Jamboree in Holland this August. I commend

Armando Lopez on his commitment to the

community and I am sure he will succeed in

all of his future endeavors.

PROTECT AMERICA’S DEFENSE

fWORKERS

HON. BOB FILNER OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, May 18, 1995

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I

rise today to urge this Congress to make a

major reinvestment in communities hit hardest

by the downsizing of America’s defense industry.

San Diego is home to a highly skilled and

productive work force. A generation of these

talented defense workers helped to establish

California’s dominance in the defense and

aerospace industry.

Now defense workers in communities like

San Diego are watching their jobs disappear—

not only because of relaxing world tensions—

but also because our own Department of Defense is helping to subsidize their transfer to

other cities.

Last year, my district saw the relocation of

Martin Marietta’s Space Systems Division to

Denver—with a net loss of 1,800 jobs for my

community. But the worst part about this situation is that our own U.S. Air Force rewrote a

contract and paid Martin Marietta a $30 million

subsidy to help transfer these jobs out of San

Diego and out of California.

To make matters worse, just last month the

Defense Department gave away another $31

million of taxpayer money to the top executives of Martin Marietta and Lockheed.

What did our Defense Department give to

those defense workers in San Diego that lost

their jobs? Absolutely nothing.

To correct this gross injustice, I recently introduced H.R. 702, the Displaced Workers Defense Act of 1995.

My legislation is very simple: It would require that any cost savings realized by the

Federal Government under a defense contract

that causes job losses in communities be returned to that community—to help create new

jobs and to retrain displaced defense workers

so they can take advantage of these new job

opportunities.

We must stop this giveaway of taxpayer

funds to wealthy corporations.

We must use our scarce resources to help

those defense workers that have worked so

hard to make America great.

Please join me in this effort to protect our

defense workers from being left behind in our

changing economy. Join me in supporting

H.R. 702, the Displaced Workers Defense Act

of 1995.

SAN FRANCISCO LABOR LEADERS

CARRY SPIRIT OF AMERICAN

fLABOR MOVEMENT TO CHINA

HON. TOM LANTOS OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, May 18, 1995

Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

call to the attention of my colleagues an upcoming visit of considerable importance by

Ms. Josie Mooney, president of the San Francisco Labor Council. She will embark on a

good will journey to meet with labor leaders in

China.

Mr. Speaker, Josie Mooney and the San

Francisco Labor Council represent the best of

the American labor movement—free-working

men and women, who are organized to seek

better wages, improved working conditions,

and a better standard of living for working men

and women in our area and around our Nation.

As the official representative of the San

Francisco Labor Council, Josie Mooney will

meet with leaders of the Shanghai Municipal

Trade Union Council and other labor leaders.

I wish her great success in those meetings as

she works to build bonds of brotherhood between the working men and women of the

United States and China.

It is my sincere desire that the spirit and example of the San Francisco Labor Council and

of the United States union movement will inspire labor leaders in China to emulate the

high standards set by American unions and

their outstanding leaders.