Congress Poised to Repeal Blacklisting Rule

Employment Law

This week, the Senate voted 51 to 46 to proceed on a measure that would permanently block former President Obama's Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order (E.O. 13673).  The House has already passed a disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act to scrap the rule, and the Senate is expected to hold a final vote on the measure next week after 10 hours of debate.  President Trump is expected to sign it shortly thereafter.  In October 2016, a federal judge in Texas put most of the implementing regulations on hold, but allowed separate pay information obligations to go into effect in January.  The Congressional measure would strike down the entire final rule (including the pay information obligation) and preclude the FAR Council from ever publishing a similar regulation in the future.  Over the past two years, HR Policy has helped lead the effort to overturn the rule because it would have undermined the integrity of the federal contracting process and denied due process rights to contractors.