Amendment to Executive Order 13202, Preservation of Open Competition and Government Neutrality Towards Government Contractors' Labor Relations on Federal and Federally Funded Construction Projects

This executive order amends EO 13202 to add an exemption clause allowing agency heads to excuse specific construction projects from the order's anti-project labor agreement (PLA) requirements if those projects already had bid specifications, project agreements, or contracts containing PLA-related requirements in place as of February 17, 2001. The amendment effectively grandfathers in existing projects that would otherwise violate the new prohibition on mandatory labor agreements.

Federal Register Open PDF 66 FR 18717

Impact dates

Feb 17, 2001
Bid specifications, project agreements, or contracts must have existed as of February 17, 2001 to qualify for exemption
Feb 17, 2001
Construction contracts subject to PLA requirements must have been awarded as of February 17, 2001

Key directives

Amend EO 13202, section 5, by adding new subsection (c)
Permit agency heads to exempt specific projects from sections 1 and 3 of EO 13202 upon application
Exemption requires finding that bid specifications, project agreements, labor organization agreements, or controlling documents containing requirements/prohibitions from sections 1(a) or (b) existed as of February 17, 2001
Exemption requires finding that one or more construction contracts subject to such requirements had been awarded as of February 17, 2001

Who is ordered

Head of an executive agency · Executive agencies

Timeline

Immediate

EO takes effect upon filing April 10, 2001; agencies can begin receiving exemption applications for grandfathered projects

Near term (90d)

Agency heads evaluate exemption applications for projects with pre-existing PLA-related contracts or specifications

Long term

Limited ongoing effect as pre-February 2001 projects are completed; no lasting structural change to labor policy beyond temporary grandfathering

Risks & tensions

Exemption criteria rely on 'as of the date of this order' referencing EO 13202's February 17, 2001 date, not EO 13208's April 6, 2001 date—potential ambiguity in application
Limited practical impact: narrow temporal window (approx. 7 weeks) for qualifying projects creates small exemption class
Tension between anti-PLA policy goal and pragmatic accommodation of contracts already in progress; avoids legal disruption but weakens uniformity of EO 13202's labor neutrality mandate