Description:
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 16, 2012
S. 1100 would prohibit federal agencies from requiring existing or potential contractors to submit information concerning any political contributions to the government, or from using political contributions as a factor in awarding contracts. According to the General Services Administration, while there is a draft executive order that would require agencies to collect information regarding a contractor’s or potential contractor’s political contributions, agencies are not currently collecting such information. CBO estimates that implementing S. 1100 would not require agencies to make a significant change in the contracting process and thus would not have a significant impact on the federal budget.
Enacting the bill could affect direct spending by agencies not funded through annual appropriations; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates, however, that any net increase in spending by those agencies would be negligible. Enacting S. 1100 would not affect revenues.
S. 1100 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
On May 8, 2012, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2008, the Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act of 2011, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on April 26, 2012. The two pieces of legislation are similar, and the CBO cost estimates are the same.
