Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Federal contractors to be limited on criminal background checks

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Private employers with federal contracts will soon be prohibited from requesting criminal history information from candidates at the onset of the hiring process; instead, they will have to wait until after an offer is made.

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 (Act) was discreetly tucked into the Defense Spending Bill approved on December 20, 2019.  The Act is part of a growing national trend of “Ban the Box” laws, referring to the question on job applications asking whether a candidate has been convicted of a crime.  Ban the Box laws largely have bipartisan support and, according to the National Employment Law Project, have been approved in 35 states and more than 150 cities across the United States.

As of March 31, 2017, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management already required most federal agencies to wait until the conditional offer stage of the hiring process to request criminal history information from a job candidate.  The Act supersedes this regulation and applies the prohibition to both the federal government and now certain private employers.

Continue reading at:  Ackerman

Contracting dispute delays OPM’s background investigations processing

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision comes shortly after OPM stood up the nascent National Background Investigations Bureau. Two companies filed a protest with GAO after OPM awarded the $117 million contract to Primus Solutions, a division of ARSC Federal. The contract was for at least two years with options of up to five, and was intended to provide OPM employees support in processing background investigations.

In its solicitation, OPM had said it would consider price to a much lesser degree that non-price factors such as technical approach, quality control plan, staffing plan and past performance. Primus came in more than $9 million below one of the companies filing the protest and more than $44 million below the other. GAO confirmed allegations that OPM’s selection authorities ignored initial concerns from its price evaluators that Primus’ cost estimates were “unrealistic.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/06/contracting-dispute-delays-opms-background-investigations-processing/138688/

New background check agency will affect contractors

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Contractors often complaint that the background check process is slow, while contractors and their employee alike worry about information security in the wake of a sensitive OPM data breach that leaked the personal information of millions of government workers and contractors. Now, a change to the background check process is coming.

White House sealThe White House announced last week that a new government agency would be taking charge of conducting background checks on all federal employees, Armed Services members, and civilian contractors. The government hopes the change will speed up background checks on contractors, many of whom have to wait months before a background check is completed, while also maintaining security over personal information. Of course, as with any government roll-out of a new initiative, it remains to be seen whether the new agency will live up to expectations.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/new-background-check-agency-will-affect-contractors/

Supreme Court will weigh in on NASA contractor dispute

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments from NASA contractors who claim the government has violated their privacy with intrusive background checks.

The case involves 28 California Institute of Technology scientists, under contract with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. On Thursday, Virginia Keeny, attorney for the JPL scientists, said the case will address the broader question of whether the government can “force employees whose jobs have no effect on national security to reveal private information in order to keep their jobs.” Keeny spoke during a conference call organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the integrity and independence of science.

“The court decision will have an impact far beyond JPL,” she said.

The JPL scientists sued NASA in 2007 over implementation of the Bush administration’s Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, which requires a standardized identification card for all government employees and contractors. Before the cards are issued, employees and contractors are subject to extensive backgrounds checks that include questions about their ethnicity, finances and health.

None of the JPL scientists involved in the case conduct research considered classified or high risk, and they believe these background checks are unnecessary and unconstitutional.

Robert Nelson, a JPL scientist for 32 years and lead plaintiff in the case, said the background checks include probing of “films we view, books we read and the names of the people we associate with. My personal life is my own business, and it is irrelevant to my job performance.”

NASA’s public affairs office declined to comment on the case.

According to Kurt Gottfried, UCS co-founder and board member, the court’s decision will set a precedent for other independent, federally funded research institutions. He fears that intrusive background checks will discourage talented researchers from working with the government, or other federally sponsored institutions and negatively affect the country’s body of scientific work.

On Thursday, Gottfried spoke highly of scientists at JPL. “They have made historic contributions to human knowledge.” Keeny expects a verdict on the case from the court within the next few months.

— By Norah Swanson – NextGov.com – 09/30/10 – © 2010 – NATIONAL JOURNAL GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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