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Contractors, not Congress, hove the best chance to put a stop to the commoditization of their craft.
Do a Web search on "reverse auctions" and you'll find abundant commentary about what a bad idea they are. AGC, MCAA and a horde of other construction trade groups are rightfully indignant that reverse auctions reduce their members' hard-won skills to commodity status.
Yet, genuine commodity producers scream just as loudly. You can even find articles by procurement authorities who caution that reverse auctions don't save as much money as assumed and ought to be used sparingly.
Reverse auctions are a lot like sin. Everyone claims to be against it, which makes you marvel why so much of it occurs.
Actually, in construction, reverse auctions have a long way to go to match the popularity of sin. They are still much more the exception than the rule for bidding jobs - and therein lay a path to salvation.
The industry's backlash against reverse auction bidding rests its faith in H.R. 1348, which would prohibit bid shopping and whose wording puts reverse auctions squarely in that category. That's just dandy, except H.R. 1348 would apply only...