Eric Leonard Comments on Repeal of Fair Pay Rule for Federal Contractors

March 29, 2017

Eric W. Leonard, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Government Contracts Practice, was quoted in a March 28 Law360 article regarding the Trump Administration’s repeal of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order (EO), which had been put in place by the prior Administration. Of particular concern to contractors was a rule that required companies bidding on government contracts to disclose any recent labor law violations. According to critics of the EO, these violations could then be used against the contractors in the process of awarding contracts, potentially “blacklisting” them. 

“Labor statutes themselves already have their own remedial schemes and ways to handle violators,” Mr. Leonard noted. “Vesting contracting officers with such discretion to make determinations that, in my opinion, they probably weren't qualified to make, was very concerning.”