 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
President Signs Bill Containing Repeal of Federal Cooperative Purchasing While the President has until Thursday, Oct. 16 to line item veto provisions in the bill, repeal of cooperative purchasing does not appear to meet the conditions of the line item law. Repeal is not an appropriations, tax, or budget matter. "We doubt he would do it because such a line item veto would probably fail in court," commented Kenton Pattie, Executive Director of the National Emergency Equipment Dealers Association. The Federal plan to take over purchasing for state and local governments originated with Vice President Gore's "Reinventing Government" and was included in the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act as Section 1555. While the proponents promised the US government would negotiate lower prices for all governments, the General Accounting Office could not substantiate any such savings. Emergency equipment dealers predicted the Federal government would have unfair advantages which would put most dealers out of business. Manufacturers predicted that their costs would rise. Many fire chiefs supported repeal because they are skeptical about Federal control in the selection of emergency products. Chiefs said they want continued training, product information, parts, maintenance, and repair capabilities from local dealers. The plan was vigorously opposed by the National Emergency Equipment Dealers Association (NEEDA). When NEEDA formed in November 1996 it made repeal of cooperative purchasing its number one goal. NEEDA led in the formation of a national coalition to fight cooperative purchasing. Support for the campaign came from such organizations as the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Association of Wholesalers, and most veterans organizations. Opposition came from a coalition led by the National Association of Counties (NACO). Among Congressional leaders for repeal was Rep. Anne Northup (R-Louisville KY) a freshman member of the House Appropriations Committee. Repeal was passed twice by the Senate but was stymied in the House where lobbyists for cooperative purchasing made their biggest effort. Amendments to keep cooperative purchasing alive were defeated by the House Appropriations committee. Among key legislators trying to keep the cooperative purchasing door open was Rep. Tom Davis (R-Northern VA). Congress rarely repeals previously passed laws. Section 1555 had never gone into effect because Congress had suspended implementation three times responding to the concerns of small businesses. The US General Services Administration (GSA) had announced it was prepared the launch a full cooperative purchasing program. GSA's final plan had been cleared by the Office of Management and Budget and was ready to be launched this winter. White House spokesman Steve Kelman complained "Fire equipment dealers are a small vocal special interest group impeding the progress of cooperative purchasing." On their many trips to Washington, dealers met with officials at GSA and the White House, but kept the main focus on Capitol Hill. The first effort to repeal cooperative purchasing ended in an extension of the moratorium which held GSA at bay until November 1997. The second, a special amendment to the Treasury Appropriations bill, won Congressional support despite a last minute parliamentary maneuver by Rep. Tom Davis. When the Senate-House Conference Report returned to the House floor with full and unconditional repeal of Section 1555, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland OH) a proponent of Federal centralized cooperative purchasing lamented "These GSA-negotiated prices are often the lowest anywhere, allowing local taxpayers an opportunity to save money. Unfortunately, certain industry groups that benefit from government inefficiency would like nothing more than to have the law repealed." Rep. Davis told the House he was "disappointed. . .this provision could have saved local governments, State and local governments tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars annually." Davis produced a letter from Vice President Al Gore who said "The Administration opposes this attempt to repeal the provision because it would deny state and local taxpayers the opportunity to share in the savings the Federal Government is able to negotiate as a large buyer of commercial items. . .The cooperative purchasing program is an important example of how we need to use common sense to save tax dollars and do the right thing for all Americans," Gore said. NEEDA President James "Pat" Griffin said: "We praise Congress for responding to small businesses. This was a small business vs. big government issue and small businesses won." But, Griffin warned that Rep. Davis and others are proceeding with new legislation to reinstate cooperative purchasing. "Their first target will be the computer industry and that will open the door to a Federal takeover of more and more industries. GSA is not giving up: They have a whole marketing department geared to selling GSA services to state and local governments in competition with local dealers. We expect this issue to come up again in the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee in 1998."
More info: Kenton Pattie |
