During a House Oversight Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) jokingly complimented Rep. Pete Simmons (R-TX) for wearing a collared shirt which he referred to as a part of the "Jim Jordan collection" which qualified him for the "sexy chart."
00:00Mr. Prince, thank you very much. All three of you have provided this subcommittee with not only professional advice, but each of you are appreciated for being here.
00:10We now move to the member questions. I'd like to recognize the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Burchett. You're recognized for five minutes, sir.
00:20When you said distinguished gentleman, Mr. Chairman, I wasn't sure who you were talking about, but I appreciate my six years of Congress.
00:26I believe this is the first time I've ever gotten to go first. I thought maybe some of my Democrat friends were right.
00:32The rapture did come, and I was left behind, but I see there's some more folks out there that think like I do, so I think we're okay.
00:40Mr. Prince, do you think it'd be beneficial for the Government Accountability Office to be more transparent about the bid protest evaluation process for businesses?
00:50I do. I mean, I think it would be very helpful for GAO to continue its practice of publishing dismissal decisions, which it's done more of.
01:04There's been a lot of talk in the Bar about whether they should also allow access to the public to the docket, not just the listing of filings, but the redacted pleadings.
01:13I do think that would be helpful, just to understand what arguments have been successful, how they've been presented.
01:20That would give agencies a better insight into how to fix things on the front end.
01:24Don't you think that the people, for good reason, think this town's as crooked as a dog's leg, literally?
01:32And, you know, every time we attempt to brush something aside, it just seems to create more controversy, and then we have to go back and correct it.
01:40I just, transparency has never really been a problem with me, and I appreciate that answer, sir.
01:46Mr. Yukon, did I say that name right?
01:49Yukon or Yukon, how do you say it?
01:51Yukon, sir.
01:52Okay, well, Burchett, they massacre my name every day of the week, so we're good.
01:56Are there any current laws or regulations in the bid protest process that place unfair burdens on these businesses and stifle economic prosperity?
02:05I see this a lot with the smaller folks.
02:07When I was county mayor, the big boys could roll in with their attorneys, and, you know, somebody out there just hustling, maybe a small minority company, has a lot of difficulty with this thing, and I was very concerned about that.
02:21Could you address that, sir?
02:23Yes, sir.
02:23It actually, ironically, is at the other end of the spectrum, and as the chairman mentioned, there's a need to align with what the Trump administration is doing.
02:31The Trump administration and Senator Worker, Chairman Worker, on the Senate side, are clearly, sir, going to be using other transactions more.
02:41Mr. Prince alluded to.
02:42There's other transactions, or it's an oddly named thing, but it basically means starting from scratch.
02:48You throw the whole procurement system out the window, and you write from scratch.
02:51That creates a lot of problems.
02:54We teach contracting officers.
02:56About a third of my students are mid-level contracting officers.
03:00They have no idea how to negotiate these things, whereas their private counterparts really do.
03:06So in many ways, the irony here is it's not the small business.
03:09It's the government that's at the disadvantage in other transactions.
03:12For the reasons you talked about, about public credibility and legitimacy, very important, as Mr. Prince said, to have as much transparency and accountability as possible in other transactions.
03:22They're a good idea.
03:23Other transactions are a good idea because they allow private capital to come in much more aggressively, much more successfully than in the traditional procurement process.
03:30So other transactions is a good idea, but we have to have transparency.
03:34We have to have accountability.
03:36Thank you, sir.
03:36All right.
03:36Finally, Mr. Patton, how often do contractors pull their cases from the Government Accounting Office and file new cases with the U.S. Federal Court of Federal Claims?
03:49And that's probably just give me an estimate.
03:50I just I know you can't just say specifically.
03:54Actually, unfortunately, you're right.
03:56We can't say specifically because we don't actually have the insight into the data about what cases go from GAO to the court.
04:04But what I can say is typically the court of federal claims has anywhere from 200 to 140 cases a year.
04:12Probably about half of those may have had some prior life at GAO.
04:17Do you have any idea what the percentage of bid protests are meritless?
04:23Just off the top of your head, give me a ballpark.
04:25We have an effectiveness rate of 50%, which means that there's something wrong in procurement, so the agency takes it back.
04:43For those decisions that go to a merit decision, the opposite of the 16%, those that we deny probably don't contain a winning case
04:56or the prosecutor was not able to demonstrate a violation of law or regulation that would have had an impact on the award.
05:04Okay, real quickly, rapid fire, I'm about out of time.
05:08Which legislative proposals would be the most beneficial for Congress to implement to reform the bid process, bid protest process, Mr. Patton?
05:16I would say get the data that you need to identify the correct problem because right now there's no real answer.
05:22Out of time.
05:23Mr. Prince?
05:23I think the enhanced debriefing, extend that out to civilian agencies.
05:29All right.
05:30Absolutely concur.
05:31Enhanced debriefing.
05:32Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:33As usual, this is not the sexiest committee, but it's the one that gets down to work.
05:37I appreciate you.
05:39Present company excluded, of course.
05:40You're down there wearing something from the Jim Jordan collection.
05:43I say no jacket, so you're up on the sexy chart now, Mr. Chairman.
