Focus on the Corporation follow-up: Anti-Scofflaw Alert

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

A few weeks ago, the Focus on the Corporation column was titled "A Law and
Order Regulation for Corporations." The subject was a proposal to prevent
the U.S. government from entering into contracts with companies that are
chronic or serious violators of labor, environmental, tax, antitrust or
employment laws. This note is a follow up to that column. 

For more details, see the Essential Action web page,
http://www.essentialaction.org/anti-scofflaw.

The federal government is now accepting comments on the proposed
regulation. Business groups are weighing in heavily against it; and so if
the proposal is to be enacted, it is vital that citizens and public
interest groups submit comments in support of the regulation.

It is easy to submit comments -- even a comment that says nothing more
than, "I support the principle that the federal government should not
contract with companies that seriously transgress the law" is valuable,
and comments can be submitted by e-mail (as well as regular mail).

For background on the proposed regulation, and tips on what to say in
comments, see the Essential Action web page,
http://www.essentialaction.org/anti-scofflaw. You can e-mail comments
directly to the agency from this page.

If you are so eager to send comments that you don't even want to check the
page, you can send them by e-mail to farcase.99-010@gsa.gov or by regular
mail to: 

       General Services Administration 
       FAR Secretariat (MVR)
       1800 F Street, NW, Room 4035 ATTN: Laurie Duarte
       Washington, D.C. 20045

Be sure to mention in all written comments that you are commenting in
reference to FAR case 99-010. 

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