OPINION:
The House and Senate are working through the appropriations process in a year when Republicans are worrying about keeping the majority and Democrats are reluctant to give Republicans any victories. One positive development is Congress reasserting authority over the “power of the purse.”
The U.S. Constitution is clear in Article I that Congress appropriates spending power resides in the Congress — “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by law.” In the Defense appropriations measure, Congress inserted a provision that is a great example of that branch of the federal government asserting power to dictate how taxpayers’ money is spent.
In the year-end budgeting process, more money was spent on defense, yet there is a provision to make sure that the money spent on contracting has some controls. Bloomberg Government reported on Sept. 13, 2018, “A budget agreement reached by U.S. lawmakers would bar the Defense Dept. from spending any money to migrate applications to its upcoming cloud project until Congress receives more information.” This is the result of some controversy over a massive cloud-computing project that is in the process of being put out for contracting bids and outlines.
Two news outlets have reported that this contract has become controversial because of the perception that this request for proposal was written for Amazon and in a way that excluded competent competitors in the field.
Vanity Fair reported on Aug. 13, 2018, “There’s a new scandal quietly unfolding in Washington. It’s far bigger than Housing Secretary Ben Carson buying a $31,000 dinette set for his office, or former EPA chief Scott Pruitt deploying an aide to hunt for a deal on a used mattress. It involves the world’s richest man, President Trump’s favorite general, and a $10 billion defense contract. And it may be a sign of how tech giants and Silicon Valley tycoons will dominate Washington for generations to come.” The Department of Defense issued a request that was issued in July for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract that is worth about $10 billion in work for the winner.
Red flags were raised when the request looked like it was written for Amazon Web Services (AWS). The reporter talked to insider “familiar with the 1,375-page request for proposal, the language contains a host of technical stipulations that only Amazon can meet, making it hard for other leading cloud-services providers to win — or even apply for — the contract. One provision, for instance, stipulates that bidders must already generate more than $2 billion a year in commercial cloud revenues — a bigger is better requirement that rules out all but a few of Amazon’s rivals. Congress is trying to save money by imposing transparency on the process to avoid even the appearance of cronyism.
There was even an allegation that Amazon had a friendly staffer help guide the request for proposal through the process. The Daily Caller reported on Aug. 8, 2018, “A former senior adviser to Secretary of Defense James Mattis was receiving payments from her sale of a consulting firm she founded that worked with Amazon’s cloud computing arm, while the Pentagon simultaneously crafted a $10 billion contract that many say is tilted in favor of the tech giant.” Congressional appropriators took note of these allegations and have used the appropriations bill to force the Department of Defense to provide reports to Congress on the progress of this effort.
Cloud computing, if done correctly and protecting from hacking, is a great idea to bring the Department of Defense into the modern era of data storage. The Department of Defense has the power to roll out request for contracting, but it must be done in an ethical and fair manner. Congress is using the “power of the purse” to force a justification that will end up protecting the taxpayer from even the appearance of impropriety.
Our Founding Fathers created a separation of power for a reason and I am happy, as a former House staffer, that Congress is asserting a power that is not used enough. The news is dominated by the Trump administration’s efforts to spur economic growth, strengthen our national defense and reduce unnecessary regulations, yet Congress also plays an important role in protecting the taxpayer from cronyism in government contracting. While Congress has low approval ratings, lawmakers can take credit for one provision in law that will not get much reporting but will potentially save the taxpayers billions over the next 10 to 20 years.
• Beau Rothschild, the founder of Rothschild Policy and Politics, formerly served as the members outreach director for the Committee on House Administration.
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