We’ve been discussing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s six proposals for streamlining the acquisition process and improving the acquisition environment, part of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and we’ve reached the final post in the series.
This proposal would revise 42 U.S.C. 6962(c)(3)(A), which requires certification by Federal contractors to estimate the percentage of the total recovered material content for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated item(s) delivered and/or used in contract performance, and to submit a certified report to their contracting officer.
This proposal has to do with the administration’s move to reduce “regulatory burdens.” It is part of a general overall trend, and here at TAPE we are unrelentingly in favor of reducing any kind of administrative burden. In this case there was a duplication where things had to be reported both to the EPA and to the contracting officer, who really wasn’t going to do anything about it because it’s the EPA who needs to keep track of recovered products.
For example, if you’re removing asbestos from a building, you have to report that it’s there, and how you’re going to dispose of it by taking it to the right place, getting it recycled, etc. Since that is an EPA requirement, not a FAR requirement, it makes good sense to leave it out of FAR. There’s still a burden, you still have to report it, but you only have to do it once.
Don’t we love the OMB?
