Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a three-time Wash100 award winner, has asked the Office of Management and Budget to release a directive that would direct agencies to implement a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that offers relief to contractors supporting the country’s national security missions.
“Without such overarching directive, I fear that agencies and their contracting officers will take disparate approaches, leading to uncertainty and instability in the contractor industrial base, if not a permanent loss of capability,” Warner wrote in a letter to Acting OMB Director Russell Vought.
Warner said he wants the policy to support teleworking initiatives and payment for contractors amid the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a fair cost reimbursement method.
The lawmaker also asked OMB to come up with a standard contract modification language within 15 days of the directive’s release to “maintain ready state (on-call) contractor capability, reflects dependencies on subcontractors and suppliers whose performance may be impaired by COVID-19, and adjust contract performance issues.”
To avoid any disruption in contract implementation, Warner said the directive should permit accelerated consideration of extensions in performance periods and “adjustments in contract ceiling values.”
