Should Companies Be Forced to Disclose Political Donations?

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": An update to a story we first told you about yesterday, the one about forcing companies to disclose political donations in order to get government work.

Now, we got our hands on the executive order draft. Here's what it says -- "Every contracting department and agency shall require all entities submitting offers for federal contracts to disclose certain political contributions and expenditures."

My next guest doesn't like the sound of that one bit. Brett McMahon helps run a construction company.

Brett, I understand you just recently got a government contract, right?

BRETT MCMAHON, VICE PRESIDENT, MILLER & LONG CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION: Yeah. Yeah. And there were no politics involved.

And why the president seeks to insert them here, which is what he is doing, in a process that actually was designed to be utterly devoid of any politics? I mean, that was -- they kind of set up the whole system that way. So now we get the guy from Chicago telling us that, you know, we need to worry about politics in contracts?

I mean, it's -- this thing is stunning, outrageous. And the fact that it made it to a sheet of paper in the White House...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Now, it 's just -- to be fair, though, Brett, it is just a draft. You know how drafts go. There are ultimately revisions and all. It could be taken out.

MCMAHON: Yeah.

CAVUTO: But I was trying to understand this, Brett, and flipping it around the other way. What if they are trying to be on the up-and-up? Just bear with my analogy here, because they won't talk to us. Maybe I can get this point of view across. And that, if everything is on board, in other words, all donations, anything, anything that could show a potential conflict, it is out there, it's in the application?

What do you make of that?

MCMAHON: Well, I mean, there are certain things that are already available. Why they need to actually sit down and go through -- there are about 200,000 federal contractors a year. And, by the way, those are the people that win the contracts. Ya know, there's probably four or five or six losing bidders each time. But all their information has to go in, too.

What do they then make a decision on? I mean is this part of some way to make the purchasing or procurement decision either one way or the other? And then what do you do about that? Is there some way to protest?

CAVUTO: Well, do you have a union shop? I think last time you were talking about...

MCMAHON: No.

CAVUTO: ... because you didn't -- right, and that -- that that precluded you from getting -- or at least you felt at the time -- not getting contracts.

MCMAHON: [INAUDIBLE]

CAVUTO: Maybe, because after that appearance, you have gotten something, maybe we helped with that. But having said that, do you get a sense, as the Chamber of Commerce has charged, that unions are exempt from this? In other words, they do not have to point out donations?

MCMAHON: Yes. Yeah, and as are anybody who receives like grants or any other stuff, which, frankly, is -- a lot of that stuff is not even done competitively.

I mean, these are -- these are contracts which are competitively bid. You win it based on, ya know, price and skill and a long process. The politics part of it should have nothing whatsoever to do with this. This is actually counterproductive to keeping politics out of contracts.

CAVUTO: But the politics is in it, right, by the very fact that so many of these contracts are awarded to unions anyway. That's already a given.

MCMAHON: Yes. That's only legal in construction. Keep in mind, that's only legal in construction. We are talking about contracting -- you know, if you supply paper towels to a local Social Security office, you're going to have to do this too.

CAVUTO: Wow.

MCMAHON: And, ya know, it's different than other threshold things in construction, where it is big dollars, $25 million. Here, they are talking about first dollar out that you spend, you are going to have to go and poll all your employees. I mean, it is insane and it's -- it's an incredible outrage.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: All right. I always like you because you're a no-nonsense guy. Brett, thank you very, very much. Good seeing you. Good luck.

MCMAHON: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Brett McMahon.

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