TSA Back Under The Thumb off FAR and CICA

After a 6-year holiday from fundamental procurement laws for overseeing federal agencies and assuring due process and fairness for contractors, the Transportation Security Administration as of June 23, 2008, must once again comply with FAR requirements and CICA competition rules, as well as defend itself in protests before GAO and contract disputes before the Board of Contract Appeals. Following two years of legislative effort by Senators Kerry and Snowe and August 2007 hearings by the House Homeland Security Committee, Congress included a little-noticed, cryptic, two-sentence provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-161, Div. E, Title V, Section 568) stripping TSA of its statutory exemption and requiring TSA to follow the same acquisition laws and regulations governing nearly all other federal agencies.