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The annual report to Congress on federal contracting prepared by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is disappointing in several critical aspects. One is its failure to address problems of continuing lax contractor oversight by federal agencies; another is its ignoring of the reality that government contractors failed to pay some $1.4 billion in taxes owed for 2004 and 2005 even as these private companies accepted taxpayers’ money. The OMB report also clearly reflects an administration seriously out of touch with Congress and the American people in that OMB has declared it will seek the repeal or significant modification of bipartisan common sense cost-savings measures enacted by Congress last year. These measures require an agency to ensure that contracting decisions are based on cost, not subjective reading of a contractor’s “best value” claims. The legislative language prevents contracting out work performed by more than 10 federal employees unless the private concern can show a cost savings of 10 percent in personnel-related expenditures or $10 million. OMB’s determination to undermine that reasonable requirement is disappointing, to say the least, and reflects the administration’s insistence on injecting a measure of unnecessary and unwise subjectivity into the spending of taxpayer dollars.