Section 809 Panel - Recommendation #65 - Increase the Acquisition Thresholds of the Davis-Bacon Act, the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, and the Services Contract Act to $2 Million

Abstract

The Davis-Bacon Act, the Walsh-Healey Act, and the Service Contract Act negatively affect defense acquisitions by imposing artificially high labor costs, reducing competition, and imposing administrative burdens on the Department of Defense and industry. Raising their acquisition thresholds to $2 million will strike balance between achieving less burdensome contract actions and continuing to uphold the intent of these laws for most of DoD's related expenditures.