SFGATE.COM
The House voted to limit no-bid federal contracts Thursday, alleging abuses and citing huge losses in contracts for Katrina recovery and Iraq reconstruction.
The Accountability in Contracting Act was the last of five open government bills the House passed this week under new Democratic leaders critical of what they say has been the closed and secretive nature of the Bush administration.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, passed 347-73
The White House opposed the contracting bill, as it did most of the other bills, saying it would complicate the administration's own efforts to make contracting more competitive.
Democrats cited figures showing that federal contracts have nearly doubled in the Bush years, to about $400 billion a year, and that sole-source contracts, where there is no competitive bidding, grew from $67 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2005.
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