And now it is your turn (your turn to hear the stone and then your turn to burn)

The stone it calls to you (you can't refuse to do the things it tells you to)

And as the screaming fire engine siren fills the air

The evidence will vanish from your charred and smoking chair 

-- The Statue Got Me High, They Might Be Giants

Back in the day, on October 31, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a new Executive Order that revoked Obama’s Executive Order 13495 on Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers. This was done without any prior notice. It was one of the first initiatives of the new Secretary Scalia leadership at the U.S. Department of labor (“DOL”). The revocation of E.O. 13495 eliminated the requirement that service contractors and their subcontractors offer certain workers of the predecessor contractor and its subcontractors a right of first refusal of employment for positions they are qualified for. We discussed that development in an earlier blog.  See https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2019/11/4/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont-the-nondisplacement-executive-order-13495-is-gone?rq=Nondisplace.

DOL rescinded its implementing nondisplacement regulations on January 31, 2020. See 85 Fed. Reg. 5567. Now, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) also has been updated to reflect the new realities. A final rule amending the FAR to delete the FAR subpart 22.12 entirely and the corresponding clause, FAR 52.222-17 as well, was issued. FAR 1.106, 2.101 and clauses 52.212-5 were also amended to delete references to the revoked E.O. 13495. 85 Fed. Reg 27087 (May 6, 2020). The new rule is effective June 5, 2020.

These regulatory changes resolve some of the ambiguities we discussed in our prior blog, where we discussed concerns that contracting agency officials continued to demand compliance with and to insert clauses related to nondisplacement in solicitations and existing contracts simply because the FAR ostensibly included those provisions.

Of course, another election looms. And this nondisplacement rule has been a recurring political football being passed back and forth. It first appeared in the Clinton Administration. The George W. Bush Administration revoke it. Then the Obama Administration put it back in play. And now the Trump Administration revoked it again. Exactly what would happen in a putative Biden Administration is a story yet to be written.