Letter: No such thing as 'no-bid contract'

A reader writes to say there is no such thing as a no-bid contract.

Regarding "Competition eludes easy fixes": You are absolutely correct that you need to understand definitions. As long as there are the various small-business set-asides, the competition rate will be higher than the full-and-open competition rate. And I, for one, hope that never changes.

My second point is that just because Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has popularized a meaningless term, do we all have to act like idiots? If there is a contract, there was at least one bid by definition.

Leigh Gillette
Federal Emergency Management Agency


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