He Ordered Agencies Not to Comply With ’84 Law : Panel Calls Reagan’s Action Unconstitutional

A House committee accused President Reagan on Friday of taking unconstitutional action by ordering federal agencies not to comply with provisions of a federal contracting law passed by Congress last year.

The Government Operations Committee said that Reagan should immediately withdraw the order and that funding for the attorney general and budget director should be cut off until the Administration complies with the law.

Republicans on the committee endorsed the report’s criticisms of the President’s actions, but they did not go along with the threat to cut off money for the two agencies.

Result of a Dispute

The report is the result of a dispute with the Administration over enforcement of a law passed last year to reform the government procurement process.

Reagan signed the bill into law but declared parts of it to be an unconstitutional intrusion by the legislative branch into prerogatives of executive agencies. The committee report said he ordered Budget Director David A. Stockman to direct all federal officials not to comply with the law.

The contracting reform act requires federal agencies to open their bidding process to all qualified firms wishing to compete for the government’s business, the committee report said.

Enforcement Mechanism

“The act also establishes, for the first time in statute, a strong enforcement mechanism through which contracts are held in abeyance while contractors appeal to the General Accounting Office when they believe they have been unlawfully denied the opportunity to compete for the award of government contracts,” the report said.

Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), chairman of the committee, said Reagan’s decision “to unilaterally declare a portion of a public law unconstitutional and then suspend it strikes at the very heart of our constitutional form of government.”