In a victory for the business community, the Bush Administration announced on December 27 that it plans to revoke a highly controversial rule issued in the final hours of the Clinton Administration that links the awarding of federal contracts to a contractor's record of "satisfactory compliance" with labor, tax, and environmental laws.

The "contractor responsibility" rule, which went into effect on January 19, 2001, had caused an uproar among businesses because it tied the awarding of government contracts to several non-procurement statutes. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., and the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., all filed suit in December 2000, seeking to overturn the final rule.