On May 4, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) received proposed final regulations for the implementation of President Obama’s controversial Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order (the “Order”).  The Order, often referred to as the “blacklisting regulation,” imposes additional disclosure and compliance obligations on federal government contractors with contracts valued at $500,000 or more, including requiring contractors to disclose violations of numerous labor, employment, wage payment and safety laws during the contract bidding and renewal process.  Some of our previous blog posts on the Order can be found here, here, and here.

The rulemaking process requires OMB to approve regulations before they are implemented.  The presentation of the proposed final regulations reflects that the Obama Administration is on schedule to have the regulations finalized this year.  The proposed final regulations transmitted to OMB were not made public, so it is unknown whether any changes were made to them following the notice and comment period.  Due to the controversial nature of the Order and its regulations, it is likely that any final rules will be subject to legal challenges.