Executive Order 12092—Federal Anti-Inflationary Procurement Practices

PROHIBITION AGAINST INFLATIONARY PROCUREMENT PRACTICES

By the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including Sections 2(c) and 3(a) of the Council on Wage and Price Stability Act, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1904 note) and Section 205(a) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C. 486(a)), and in order to encourage noninflationary pay and price behavior by private industry and labor, and to provide for the procurement by Executive agencies and Military Departments of personal property and services at prices and wage rates which are noninflationary, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1-101. The Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability shall:

(a) Monitor company pay and price practices in order to determine compliance with the standards set forth in Section 1-102 of this Order;

(b) Promulgate regulations and guidance to further define these standards, and provide for appropriate exemptions and exceptions;

(c) Publish, or cause to be published, in accordance with procedures designed to ensure fairness and due process, the names of individuals or companies which are not in compliance with the standards;

(d) Promulgate procedures to be used in proceedings before the Council on matters pertaining to the standards, and take such other action as may be necessary and consistent with the purposes of this Section.

1-102. Noninflationary wage and price behavior shall be measured by the following standards:

(a) For prices, noninflationary price behavior is the deceleration by companies of their current rate of average price increase by at least 0.5 percentage points from their historical rate of annual price increase during 1976-1977 except where profits have not increased.

(b) For pay, noninflationary pay behavior is the holding of pay increases to not more than 7 percent annually above their recent historical levels.

(c) These standards, which shall be further defined by the Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, shall be subject to certain limitations and exemptions as determined by the Chairman.

1-103. In order to ensure economy and efficiency in government procurement, the head of each Executive agency and Military Department shall ensure that their contracts incorporate, on and after January 1, 1979, a clause which requires compliance by the contractor, and by his subcontractors and suppliers, with the standards set forth in Section 1-102 of this Order.

1-104. Each Executive agency and each Military Department shall comply with the directions of the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, who, in accord with Section 6 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 405), shall be responsible for the overall direction of the implementation of Section 1-103 including the issuance of regulations and procedures for determining exceptions and granting exemptions.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

November 1, 1978.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:49 p.m., November 1, 1978]