Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-606
Sponsor: Sen. Dorgan, Byron L. [D-ND]
Introduced: 2007-02-15 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Administrative remedies
Armed Forces and National Security
Auditing
Business ethics
Commerce
Competitive bidding
Computer security measures
Conflict of interests
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional oversight
Congressional reporting requirements
Congressional witnesses
Crime and Law Enforcement
Defense contracts
Department of Defense
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Homeland Security
Disciplining of employees
Due process of law
Economics and Public Finance
Emergency Management
Employee rights
Employee selection
Environmental Protection Agency
Evidence (Law)
Extraterritoriality
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal employees
Federal officials
Finance and Financial Sector
Forfeiture
Fraud
General Services Administration
Government contractors
Government paperwork
Government procurement
Government publicity
Governmental investigations
Joint ventures
Judicial review
Law
Legal fees
Military operations
Misconduct in office
Office of Government Ethics
Office of Management and Budget
Official secrets
Presidential appointments
Profit
Prosecution
Security clearances
Valuation
Waste in government spending
Whistle blowing

Summary:
action_date: 2007-02-15
text: 
Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act of 2007 - Amends the federal criminal code to impose fines and penalties on war profiteering and fraud. 
 
Requires revision of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to provide that no prospective contractor shall be considered to have a satisfactory record of integrity and ethics if it has a pattern of either overcharging the government or failing to comply with the law. 
 
Provides for the disclosure to Congress of audit reports issued by executive agencies. Requires the Federal Procurement Data System to be modified to include publication of information on specified federal contractor penalties and violations. 
 
Amends the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 to prohibit awarding of certain monopoly federal contracts. 
 
 Requires revision of the FAR to require competition for certain multiple award contracts. Denies protest rights for certain awards. 
 
 Prohibits an agency from contracting for the performance of: (1) any inherently governmental function; or (2) acquisition functions closely associated with inherently governmental functions. 
 
Prescribes minimum requirements for political appointees holding public contracting and safety positions. 
 
Includes as a protected disclosure by a federal employee: (1) any lawful disclosure an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible evidence of waste, abuse, or gross mismanagement, without restriction as to time, place, form, motive, context, or prior disclosure; and (2) the disclosure of information required to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or the conduct of foreign affairs that the employee or applicant reasonably believes is direct evidence of waste, abuse, or gross mismanagement if such disclosure is made to a Member or employee of Congress who is authorized to receive information of the type disclosed. 
 
Sets forth provisions concerning review and appeal of actions concerning such disclosures. 
 
Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to provide that, for purposes of provisions regarding the protection of voluntarily shared critical infrastructure information, a permissible use of independently obtained critical infrastructure information includes any lawful disclosure an employee or applicant reasonably believes is credible evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, or gross mismanagement, without restriction as to time, place, form, motive, context, or prior disclosure. 
 
Requires agencies to inform employees on how to make a lawful disclosure of information. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-02-15
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6330-6331)
action_date: 2007-02-15
text: Introduced in Senate