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President Donald Trump on Monday signed a joint resolution shutting down an Obama administration-era rule that supporters said evened the playing field for law-abiding contractors, but which the current administration said amounted to “blacklisting” easy targets.
House Joint Resolution 37 stated that Congress “disapproves” the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule and “such rule shall have no force or effect.”
H.J. Res. 37 was part of a package of resolutions signed March 27 by President Trump, which “roll back job killing rules,” said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during a press briefing earlier in the day.
Congress used the Congressional Review Act to pass the resolution. The act lets Congress overrule a package of regulations through a joint resolution.
“The rule simply made it too easy for trial lawyers to go after American companies and American workers who contracted with the federal government,” Spicer said.
Relieving burdens
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, issued statements saying they applauded Trump’s signing of the resolution.
Ben Brubeck, vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs with Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), said in a statement that the rule violated due process rights for contractors, “by forcing them to report mere allegations of misconduct — which are often frivolous and filed with nefarious intentions by special interest groups — the same as fully adjudicated violations.”
Professional Services Council President and CEO David Berteau said the signing restores “fairness to the government contracting community and removed an onerous and unfair burden.”
Legal setbacks
The rule suffered a setback In October, when a judge in the Eastern District of Texas placed a preliminary injunction on it the day before its effective date.
“The [Federal Acquisition Regulation] Rule likely violates the due process rights of plaintiffs’ government contractor members by compelling them to report and defend against non-final agency allegations of labor law violations without being entitled to a hearing at which to contest such allegations,” the court said.
Read more: Trump puts last nail in coffin to eliminate ‘blacklisting’ rule for federal contractors
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