The Environmental Protection Agency has temporarily suspended BP from any new contracts with the federal government. In a statement, the EPA attributes this action to “BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company’s conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a [...]

Federal contractors must have pushed back hard at the Obama Administration. Either that, or the White House just values them a whole lot. Over the past couple weeks, not one but two potential restrictions on them have been lifted. The first was when the Administration abandoned a plan to force disclosure of political donations by [...]

Paul Ryan performed a phalange-ectomy today on CNN’s State of the Union today, cleaning up comments he made about military leaders lying to Congress about their true opinions on the defense budget. Here’s how he answered Candy Crowley’s question about the exchange: RYAN: I really misspoke, to be candid with you, Candy. I didn’t mean [...]

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee were denied the ability to add a witness to a panel on the controversial proposed executive order to force government contractors to disclose political spending. The Democrats wanted Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a supporter of the executive order, to testify. Committee chair Darrell Issa denied the request, instead [...]

On a conference call just now, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer and U.S. Chief Performance Officer and the Office of Management and Budget’s Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients defended the White House’s proposed pay freeze for federal employees from the charge that this will drive talented workers out of government as they see [...]

Rep. Alan Grayson says that legislation to deal with the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which he believes will pass the House shortly, will include a ban on direct campaign spending by any corporation who has a contract with the federal government. The Citizens United response bill is being written by Chris Van Hollen and [...]