This is freaking sweet: President Obama issued a memorandum on Wednesday designed to ensure that companies that are seriously delinquent on their taxes are not awarded federal contracts.

Back in October, I wrote about Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and his praise-worthy amendment to the FY 2010 Defense appropriations bill that would bar the government from contracting with companies who prevent their employees from bringing workplace sexual assault cases to court. The amendment passed easily 68 to 30 – with the thirty senators who voted against the measure receiving a good amount of backlash – but shortly after the vote there were rumors that conferees would strip the amendment from the final bill during reconciliation with the House. Not to fear, though, because according to Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post, the Franken amendment survived, and the final language is "remarkably strong."

This past Saturday evening, the Senate took a break from considering health care insurance reform to confirm Daniel Gordon to be the next administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). President Obama nominated Gordon on Oct. 2. A former deputy general counsel of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Gordon will face several challenges as soon as he begins his tenure.

Yesterday, OMB Watch submitted comments on the proposed Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), the new contractor performance database called for under last year's National Defense Authorization Act. Our comments focused on three areas: data quality and display; database training for contracting officials; and public access to the database. Look for a more in-depth treatment of the proposed database and the comments we supplied in next week's Watcher.