Government Accountability Office 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for appointing its members. For appointments to MedPAC that will be effective May 1, 2009, I am announcing the following: Letters of nomination should be submitted between January 1 and March 31, 2009, to ensure adequate opportunity for review and consideration of nominees prior to the appointment of new members.

On June 26, 2008, the Government Accountability Office Contract Appeals Board published an interim rule, but inadvertently omitted the effective date. This document adds an effective date to the published interim rule.

This document amends Government Accountability Office (GAO) Bid Protest Regulations, which have been promulgated in accordance with the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984. These amendments are being made to implement changes to the definition of an ``interested party'' for the GAO Bid Protest forum set forth in sec. 326 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, and to make certain administrative changes.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is proposing to amend its Bid Protest Regulations, promulgated in accordance with the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA), to implement the requirements in sec. 326 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, enacted on January 28, 2008, and to make certain administrative changes. Regarding sec. 326 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, the proposed amendments to GAO's Bid Protest Regulations implement the legislation's provisions related to the bid protest process concerning Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76, as revised on May 29, 2003. In this regard, the legislation expands the protest rights of Federal employees in an A-76 competition to grant ``any one individual'' who represents the majority of affected employees the status of an ``interested party'' to file a protest at GAO or the status of an intervenor to participate in a protest filed at GAO, to remove the current restriction limiting protests of A-76 competitions to those competitions affecting 65 or more full-time equivalent employees of a Federal agency, and to allow a protest of a decision to convert a function performed by Federal employees to private sector performance without a competition. At this time, GAO believes that these proposed revisions are the only regulatory changes necessary to implement the statutory requirements expanding the protest rights of Federal employees in an A-76 competition. Regarding administrative changes, the proposed amendments to GAO's Bid Protest Regulations are to reflect current practice and to streamline the bid protest process. GAO welcomes comments on these proposed revisions.