WHAT: The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a proposed rule that would update the Agriculture Acquisition Regulation (AGAR) with significant new compliance obligations for the agency’s contractors and subcontractors. The proposed rule would add an AGAR clause requiring contractors to certify that, as of contract award, they and their subcontractors and suppliers are complying with “all applicable labor laws.” A second proposed AGAR provision would require offerors for covered contracts to disclose “specific violations” of labor laws, certify compliance with all “previously required corrective actions” for these laws, and provide regular updates on those actions during contract performance.
Readers who find that these terms sound familiar may recall USDA’s similar rulemaking a decade ago, which the agency quickly withdrew, and prior administrations’ pursuit of broader “blacklisting” requirements, such as the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces implementation that was ultimately enjoined, withdrawn, and disapproved by Congress.
WHEN: USDA published these provisions in the Federal Register on February 17, 2022; the provisions appear towards the end of a larger, administrative-type proposed rule that USDA described as “align[ing] the AGAR” with changes in law and internal policy. (USDA actually first introduced the provisions last summer in an “unofficial” version of the AGAR posted to its website.) Comments on the proposed rule are due by March 21.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR...
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