DoD Ethics and Anti-corruption Act of 2019 - A Bill

Last month, Rep. Speier from California introduced H.R. 4277, the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-corruption Act of 2019. This Bill contains a number of provisions that will be of interest to Defense contractors.

Section 105 of the Bill would institute a four-year ban on hiring former senior officials by "Giant" defense contractors. Giant defense contractors are contractors that received an average of more than $1 billion in aggregate annual revenue from (i) the DoD or (ii) the Department of Energy for contracted work related to the U.S. nuclear program, in the previous three fiscal years.

Officials in the context of this prohibition include supervisor positions GS-15 and above, SES position, Executive Schedule positions and any military officer Grade O-6 (Colonel) and above.

This prohibition is to be implemented by contract clause and would prohibit giant contractors from hiring or paying (including as a consultant or lawyer) these (former) officials for a minimum of four years after they leave service with the DoD. The manner in which this Bill is worded prohibits payments regardless of whether the compensation is claimed on Government contracts or excluded from contracts.

There are several other provisions of this proposed legislation that will potentially affect Government contractors. We will look at those tomorrow.

The full text of the Bill can be accessed here.