The White House issued guidance to all federal agencies last week about how they should be reviewing their procurement practices to ensure that only U.S. citizens and nationals are working on federal contracts, as President Trump mandated in an August executive order.
The executive order was aimed at protecting Americans’ jobs as the country faces an economic recession due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It reflected the federal government’s increased reliance on contractors and emphasized the need to protect national security.
The order required the heads of agencies and departments to review the contracts they awarded in fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 to determine if contractors and/or subcontractors used temporary foreign labor and to what extent, specifically asking them to look for “any potential effects on national security” and/or “negative impact” of hiring temporary foreign labor or offshoring of labor on the economy. They must submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget in December with their findings and potential proposed reforms to comply with the executive order.
“To enable a timely understanding of this impact, which may require agencies to conduct outreach with their contractors, agencies should prioritize reviewing the practices of contractors on which they rely the most,” wrote OMB Deputy Director Derek Kan in the memo, dated November 19. “Accordingly, agencies should evaluate, at a minimum, service contracts from the 25 contractors with which they have made the most obligations during [fiscal years] ‘18 and ‘19, or such number of contractors to cover at least 10% of the agency's obligations for services during this period, whichever is l ..
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