Congress Chips Away at Competitive Sourcing Congressional opponents of outsourcing have won two rounds in Congress. The House approved a provision that would block all job competitions in the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service during fiscal 2004. The provision is Section 335 of Interior’s 2004 appropriations bill, which was passed July 17. The Senate voted to prohibit the Defense Department from using the streamlined competition procedures of OMB’s revised Circular A-76. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), was added to the 2004 Defense appropriations bill, which also passed July 17. Final details of the bills will be decided by conference committees. Reps. Tom Davis (R-VA) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) said they will work in conference to delete the restrictions on Interior’s competitive sourcing initiative. The Bush administration opposes both provisions. The Office of Management and Budget said it would recommend that the president veto the Interior appropriation if the restrictions are not removed. Angela Styles, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, told reporters July 14 that she believes the provisions will not survive in the final versions of the bills. In its policy statement on the Interior bill, OMB said, “Prohibiting funding for public-private competitions is akin to mandating a monopoly regardless of the impact on services to citizens and the added costs to taxpayers.” Another amendment to the House’s Interior bill would block outsourcing of National Park Service archeologists. Local congressmen objected to job competitions that are now in progress at archeology centers in Lincoln, NE, and Tallahassee, FL. The Kennedy amendment would require the Defense Department to allow employees in small units to reorganize their operations into what is known as a “most efficient organization” before putting the jobs up for competition with the private sector. Any unit with more than 10 employees would be able to propose cost-cutting measures. The provision would overrule the streamlined competitions provided in OMB’s revised Circular A-76. In a streamlined competition, for units of 65 employees or fewer, an agency’s existing costs are compared with private-sector bids. Employees have no opportunity to reorganize. Speaking in favor of the amendment, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said, “The new rules stacked the deck against employees, and made it harder for them to compete for their own jobs. It created streamlined competitions that are not even based on cost savings. The employees cannot even submit their own lowest bid.” Both the House and Senate had earlier voted to prohibit contracting out air traffic control functions. Two federal employee unions have filed lawsuits aimed at blocking some provisions of the new Circular A-76. The new circular, issued May 29, orders agencies to complete streamlined competitions within 90 to 135 days, and standard competitions involving larger numbers of employees within 12 to 18 months. Competitive sourcing is one of the key elements of President Bush’s management agenda. The administration first set a goal of competing 15% of the government’s commercial jobs by Sept. 30, but recently slipped the target back to July 1, 2004, when it became obvious that few agencies would meet the September deadline.