Request for Reconsideration

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requested reconsideration of a portion of a prior decision in which GAO sustained protests against deficiencies in a FERC invitation for bids (IFB) for stenographic reporting services. In so doing, GAO held that the IFB provision that electronic tape recording devices are not acceptable in administrative proceedings before administrative law judges was unduly restrictive of competition. FERC requested that this portion of the decision be reconsidered. The objectionable features of the reporting system in question were not shown to be inherent in all recording devices, and these features concerned matters of bidder responsibility which may be specified or proscribed in a solicitation. FERC did not present any new factual grounds demonstrating that the GAO decision was erroneous and only asserted that the GAO assessment of the record was in error due to allegedly erroneous findings of fact, resultant legal conclusions, and application of pertinent case law. Accordingly, the prior decision was affirmed.