Viewpoint: Suspend the Trump Organization from Doing Business with Government

In a commentary for Government Executive, Steve Schooner, the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law at the George Washington University Law School; Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law at the Washington University in St. Louis; and Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project On Government Oversight, say the federal government should suspend or debar the Trump Organization from doing business with federal agencies.

“It’s difficult to imagine a contractor not already on the federal government’s excluded party list (or ‘blacklist’) that presents a stronger case for exclusion,” they write. “The most likely reason Trump Org hasn’t been suspended is a fear of retaliation, which only underscores why the government must stop doing business with the Trumps.”

The authors identify the the House of Representatives’ Articles of Impeachment, the Trump Organization’s agreement to pay settlements in several fraud cases, and allegations of improper payments to Trump hotels by the Presidential Inauguration Committee as sufficient grounds for suspension and debarment.

“None of this is normal,” they write. “Conversely, suspending and debarring risky contractors to protect the government from doing business with them is a common, routine, everyday occurrence. What’s uncommon and inexplicable is that the Trump Organization has not yet been suspended.”