About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

14 Pub. Cont. Newsl. 1 (1978-1979)

handle is hein.journals/procurlw14 and id is 1 raw text is: 








SECTION OF
PUBLIC CONTRACT LAW
AMERICAN BAR
ASSOCIATION
Vol. 14, No. 1, October 1978 A


FEDERAL STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
                 Copyright © 1978 American Bar Association


Martin J. Harty, Editor, 9926 Rand Drive, Burke, VA 22015
              Edwin B. Neill, Assistant Editor


         THE CHAIRMAN'S LETTER

Dear Colleagues:
  Our committee members and our officers and coun-
cil members are busy in meeting the demands of the
exploding opportunities for our Section to serve the
public interest. The range of our current activities is
now very wide indeed.
  In the grants field we have recently proposed to the
Office of Management and Budget the assistance of'
our grants committees in connection with the OMB
study of federal assistance programs mandated by
Public Law 95-224. We have suggested that our grants
committees may be able to contribute to the study by
investigating (a) the feasibility of developing uniform
federal standards and criteria for (1) the competitive
selection of the recipients of discretionary awards of
assistance, (2) the selection of the recipients of block
grants and formula grants, (3) the termination of
assistance by the grantor or the grantee, (b) the revi-
sion of Attachment 0 to OMB Circular A-102 (and
other comparable attachments) to conform to the con-
cepts of the Model Procurement Code project, and (c)
the feasibility of providing a comprehensive system of
uniform administrative and judicial remedies to cover
all phases of the assistance process and including the
provision of such remedies at appropriate federal,
state and local levels and in conjunction with the
Model Procurement Code. We look forward to early
discussions with OMB to work out the details of our
offer of assistance to the study.
  As I reported in the July Newsletter, the Model Pro-
curement Code will be submitted this fall by the
Model Procurement Code Coordinating Committee to
the Councils of our Section and the Local Government
Section for review and approval and then will go to the
House of Delegates early in December for approval at
the 1979 midyear meeting in Atlanta. Our Section
Council is scheduled to meet for this purpost in


                    ARTICLES
  Developments in Federal Grant Law .......... 6
  Allowability of Attorneys' Fees ............... 9


Washington on Saturday, November 4, starting at
9:30 A.M. in the Mayflower Hotel, Presidential Room,
and then again on Sunday, November 5, as necessary.
The Local Government Law Section Council is also
planning to meet for this purpose in Washington the
following weekend. We are particularly indebted to the
Dembling Committee of our Council (Messrs. Paul
Dembling, Fred Sass and Tom Abernathy) for unader-
taking the review and analysis of the Code draft that
will be submitted to the two councils and for providing
a torumn for considering any possible changes to the
Code as approved by the Coordinating Committee.
  The pending federal acquisition and disputes
legislation has been moving ahead, but more slowly
than we had expected. In the Senate, S. 1264, the
Federal Acquisition Act, was reported by the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee last spring (S. Rep.
No. 95-715) and was then referred to tile Committee
on Armed Services for further review. That Commit-
tee may hold hearings on the bill and our Section
may be asked to testify. Subject to our obtaining the
requisite clearance under the ABA Blanket Authority
Procedures, we plan to propose an amendment to S.
1264 that would prohibit, as a general matter, the
public disclosure of commercial, technical or financial
information submitted to tile federal government by
business firms in connection with competing for or
performing government contracts. Most of this infor-
mation constitutes business trade secrets and the
public disclosure of it is ordinarily harmful to a firm's
competitive position. As is confirmed by a recent
report of the House Committee on Government
Operations (H.R. Rep. No. 95-1382), there is much
evidence of abuse of tile Freedom of Infornation Act
for competitive advantage in the business world. The
continuation of this abuse harms the public interest
by discouraging responsible firms from doing govern-
ment business or from submitting sensitive business
data to the government in connection with procure-
ment. The proposed legislation was approved by our
Council at the August 8 meeting and as a result of the
splendid efforts of Ruth Burg and Stanfield Johnson
the statutory language and related commentary have
been prepared for presentation to Congress.
   In any event there is a fair to good chance for
                            (contilued oil ex'I page)


Produced by the ABA Press

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most