Two influential Republican lawmakers jointly wrote to the Department of Labor (DOL), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) challenging the administration’s directive requiring federal contracting agencies to designate a labor advisor to guide agency officials on labor matters when awarding federal contracts.
The labor advisor directive said that the purpose of the advisors is to help prevent or mitigate labor violations by resolving issues early in the process.
The lawmakers—Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee; and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee—asserted that the policy could allow misguided criteria to be included in the procurement process because the directive provides no guidance on what information the advisors may provide.
In the letter, the lawmakers also expressed concerns that the directive could favor labor unions in the procurement process. The legislators said the Biden Administration’s labor advisor program resembles the controversial but never implemented blacklisting rule from the Obama era.