Overseas Military Construction, Observations on U.S. Contractor Preference

" Since the 1980s, Congress has mandated a preference for U.S. contractors for military construction contracts in certain overseas countries. In the Joint Explanatory Statement of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2014, Congress mandated that GAO examine the potential benefits and problems of expanding this preference to the countries that make up the CENTCOM area of responsibility. This report (1) examines the extent to which DOD has awarded military construction projects in accordance with the U.S. contractor preference and (2) describes DOD and State Department officials' views on the potential benefits and problems with expanding the U.S. contractor preference to include all countries within CENTCOM. To examine the extent to which DOD awarded contracts in accordance with the U.S. contractor preference, GAO analyzed information concerning the contracts awarded from October 2010 to May 2014 subject to the preference to determine whether DOD applied the preference and whether the preference affected the contract award. To identify the potential benefits and problems with expanding the preference, GAO interviewed officials with knowledge of this issue. "