Legislation Introduced in U.S. Congress Would Debar FCPA Violators From Contracting With U.S. Government

U.S. Representative Peter Welch (D-VT) recently introduced legislation that could prohibit individuals and companies convicted of bribing foreign officials from contracting with the U.S. government.

The Overseas Contractor Reform Act (H.R. 5366) would require any individual, partnership or corporation found to be have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 to be proposed for debarment from any contract or grant awarded by the federal government within 30 days after a final judgment of such violation.

According to Representative Welch's office, the legislation was introduce in response to an ongoing investigation into whether Xe Services – formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide – bribed Iraqi officials.

"Simply put, those convicted of bribing foreign officials have no business doing business with the federal government," Welch said. He added that "companies that flagrantly violate the rule of law ... ought to be stripped of their ability to profit off of American contracts."

The bill, which currently has no cosponsors, has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

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Dodd, Berman Announce Timing of Conference Committee Report on Iran Sanctions Act

Today Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), co-chairs of the Iran sanctions conference committee, released the following statement regarding the anticipated timing of final action on an Iran sanctions conference report on H.R. 2194, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act.

The draft United Nations Security Council resolution offered last week by the five permanent members of that body proposes useful additional mandatory sanctions on Iran. Even more importantly, the resolution provides a basis for the European Union and other nations to impose much stronger national sanctions on Tehran in the energy, financial and other critical sectors.

We have always said that tough multilateral sanctions are the most effective means to persuade Iran to cease its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability – a demand repeated time and again by the international community -- and we applaud the efforts of President Obama and his national security team to unite the other permanent members of the Security Council behind this urgent goal.

Until the five permanent members of the Council reached agreement on the draft resolution, we were skeptical about the prospects for near-term action on Iran sanctions at the United Nations, and our intent had been to pass the final version of our Iran sanctions legislation, H.R. 2194, by the end of May.

However, with the progress in negotiations at the Security Council, we believe that our overriding goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability is best served by providing a limited amount of time for those efforts – and expected follow-on action by the EU at its mid-June summit – to reach a successful conclusion before we send our bill to the President.

We will use the coming weeks to ensure that our legislation is crafted to complement and augment those other actions as effectively as possible. We remain fully committed to passing a package of tough U.S. sanctions in the latter half of June, and after consultations with Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Majority Leader Hoyer, we expect that our legislation will be taken up and passed by both bodies in that time frame.

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