U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill chaired a Senate hearing aimed at exploring a seemingly simple question—is it cheaper for American taxpayers when the federal government contracts with private companies, or uses federal employees?—and highlighted the fact that the answers are not as clear as previously thought.
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On Wednesday, February 29, 2012, Senators Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb introduced legislation to overhaul the federal government’s planning, management, and oversight of wartime contracting. The Senators' comprehensive reform legislation (S. 2139) builds on the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan – an independent, bipartisan panel that Senators McCaskill and Webb created through legislation they introduced in 2007.
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At a recent Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight hearing that assessed the need for continuing improvements at Arlington National Cemetery, Chairman McCaskill cited a successfully managed Missouri cemetery as an example.
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On December 12, 2011, Chairman McCaskill held a Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight hearing to review the “Non-Federal Employee Whistleblower Protection Act,” a bill that was introduced by Senator McCaskill to bolster whistleblower protections for government contractors and other non-federal employees. The hearing also reviewed whether current whistleblower protections for contractors working under Defense Department and Recovery Act contracts have been effective in encouraging reports of waste, fraud, and abuse.
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An investigation spearheaded by Senator Claire McCaskill has targeted the various loopholes, oversight failures, and tangled regulations which have resulted in contracts intended for small businesses being performed, instead, by large corporations. On July 26, 2011, Chairman McCaskill held a hearing to continue the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight's efforts to examine small business contracting issues. Since 2005, the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration has listed as one of the agency's top management challenges the fact that large firms are obtaining small business contracts, as well as agencies counting contracts performed by large corporations toward their small business contracting goals.
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