WWTBAM Bored

It appears that Secretary Betsy DeVos has denied the application of the University of Montana to participate in the Upward Bound program, to the tune of $1.7 million, because one page of its 65-page application was single-spaced rather than double-spaced.

Senator Jon Tester is fighting back, having submitted a bill that would defund Secretary DeVos's salary, and those of her senior aides, until this is rectified. I can't for the life of me imagine why Secretary DeVos has allowed this to fester, but if she doesn't change her mind, an awful lot of Montana would-be students are going to pay the price. --Bob

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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson

And Montana having a special House election next week. I'm sure this will give the voters something to think about.

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In looking into the matter, I see that these mandatory requirements have been eliminated. It is routine practice for government contract solicitations and anything where there is a competition, for purposes of fairness and level playing fields. Not sure if there actually is a competition here, other than finite funds to be split among grant proposals.

As far as contracts, strict compliance with terms is a way to weed out companies that cannot show attention to detail. If you cannot understand and apply page limits to a proposal, we shouldn't trust you with being able to do something harder like build a intelligence agency HQ.

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Here's Wylie's kick, it's high, it holds
up there, Rodgers takes the ball at the 30, he's hit and got away,
back up field to the 35, to the 40, he's to the 45, he's to the 50 to
the 45, to the 40, to the 35, to the 20, to the 10, he's all the way
home........[crowd cheering].......HOLY MOLY, MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD DID
THAT PUT 'EM IN THE AISLES.....JOHNNY THE JET RODGERS JUST TORE 'EM
LOOSE FROM THEIR SHOES!!!

Unless the Republican wins, then the result will be meaningless and we will never hear about it again.

No, "strict compliance" is a way to weed out companies that you don't want to do business with but don't want to have to defend yourself on the record by articulating the actual reason. Upward Bound helps disadvantaged (predominately minority) high school students prepare for college. The University of Montana isn't the one being hurt by this; it's the students in Montana who will find it that much more difficult to get a college education as a result. Which is Republican politics as usual.

And according to this article, the University of Maine also lost funding and Susan Collins is upset as well (although she's not joining Tester's bill).

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Thanks for giving us your 20 years of experience overseeing contracting for the Government. No wait, that would be me. Trust me, we have not selected companies that have long histories with the agency, but failed to follow the rules.

I really don't know if that is the reason here, and I agree that it shouldn't be the rule. I merely was giving an example where it is, based on rules of fairness in competition.

I am familiar with Maine and Collins, being able to read the same stories as you.

Interesting that you default to things being Republican and Democrat. Your party affiliation must mean way more to you than me.

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Here's Wylie's kick, it's high, it holds
up there, Rodgers takes the ball at the 30, he's hit and got away,
back up field to the 35, to the 40, he's to the 45, he's to the 50 to
the 45, to the 40, to the 35, to the 20, to the 10, he's all the way
home........[crowd cheering].......HOLY MOLY, MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD DID
THAT PUT 'EM IN THE AISLES.....JOHNNY THE JET RODGERS JUST TORE 'EM
LOOSE FROM THEIR SHOES!!!

Party affiliation seems to be paramount to the 535 members of Congress.

And, on most issues today, people who feel on one side of a particular issue tend to affiliate with the Republican party and those on the other side tend to affiliate with the Democratic party.

I haven't worked for 20 years overseeing Government contracts, but I have worked in government at different times long enough to know how things work. Often, they decide who they do (or don't) want to do business with and then try to figure out how to make that work within the rules rather than let the rules dictate the results.

_________________
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Our Silver Screen Central blog is now live. Check it out (and join the discussion): http://www.silverscreenvideos.com/central

I side with Appa on this one - having worked in contracting for over 30 years. I will say that there have been instances in which the government has used rules to eliminate some bidders/offerers but these almost always get protested and overturned by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals or other reviewing agencies.

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"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

This post by the most liberal of Mrs. Spock's Facebook friends reminded me of this thread and made me smile. My understanding is that she works in rural healthcare related advocacy.

>>>"Dear vendor: if you want to do business with my organization, but can't be bothered to read the info clearly posted on the website, good luck getting the contract."<<<