Congress Limits Defense Dept. Job Competitions Small job competitions in the Defense Department will be sharply restricted under the 2005 Defense Appropriations Act signed by President Bush August 5. The act, H.R. 4613, requires contractors to beat the government’s cost by at least 10% in order to win any competition involving more than 10 employees. In other departments the 10% cost advantage applies only to competitions involving more than 65 employees. The act also gives DOD employees in those small units the right to restructure their work in a so-called most efficient organization before competing with the private sector. That eliminates the streamlined competitions for small work units that are allowed by the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which sets the rules for job competitions. Those provisions were enacted last year, but were due to expire at the end of fiscal 2004. The final version of the $417.5 billion appropriations bill for 2005 was passed by both houses July 22 and is awaiting President Bush’s signature. “For a Congress that claims it is for small business, I simply cannot understand why it continues to approve language that will reduce opportunities for small, minority and women-owned business to compete for and win competitive sourcing contracts,” Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association of America, said in a statement. The appropriations bill also provides that a contractor may not reduce costs by not providing health insurance for employees or by making employees pay more for health benefits than government workers do. Other pending legislation contains additional restrictions on competitive sourcing. The Senate voted in June to allow federal employees to appeal the results of job competitions to the Government Accountability Office (the new name of the General Accounting Office). The provision is in the Defense authorization bill that is awaiting action by a joint House-Senate conference committee. Federal employee unions have fought hard to limit the administration’s competitive sourcing initiative, but OMB reported in May that federal employees had won 89% of the jobs that were opened for public-private competition during fiscal 2003. (SAA, 5/28) Contractor groups have said some companies are declining to get involved in the competitions.