What the Executive Order Says
Executive Order (EO) 13782 is entitled "Revocation of Federal Contracting Executive Orders" and was originally published on March 27th, 2017. This EO is quite terse and does not have a lot to say.Section 1
This section revokes the following:Section 2
This section directs the various executive branch agencies and departments to revise any rules that were created as a result of the EO's mentioned in section 1.Section 3
This section includes the necessary legal fine print to assure the constitutionality of the EO.My Commentary
Well, What do these other EO's actually say? EO 13673 requires that there is reporting on suppliers or contractors to the Federal Government as to whether they comply with labor laws. While this does not change the underlying laws, there will be a lot less transparency as to whether suppliers are complying with requirements.Section 3 of EO 13683 is just an edit to EO 13673 section 2(a)(i)(I). I really do not see the reason for needing to strike this even considering the severability clause in Section 7 of EO 13683.
Similarly, EO 13738 is an edit to 4 different clauses in EO 13763. Again, it seems pedantic to revoke this EO, but I guess the lawyers will take every step to assure no one has an argument against.
So does it matter? In the end, this will reduce the transparency of how the Federal Government does business. It does matter. The argument for the EO is that the original EO, as amended, created a lot of additional overhead for businesses as well as government to provide all of the required compliance reporting. This is a cost which provides a certain benefit. That benefit is transparency, better compliance to labor laws by Federal suppliers and contractors and probably higher wages. It would be hyperbole to suggest that this EO is going to lead to the Gulag where Federal infrastructure projects get done by slave labor. However, it is certainly a small step in that direction. I trust the pendulum will swing back after 2020.
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