OMB Retreats from Competitive Sourcing Goals The Bush administration has dropped its governmentwide numerical goals for competitive sourcing in the face of mounting congressional opposition. “OMB has moved away from mandated numerical goals and uniform baselines,” Angela Styles, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, testified July 24 before a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee. “Instead, we have negotiated tailored baselines based on mission needs and conditions unique to (each) agency.” The administration had set a goal of competing 15% of commercial jobs by the end of the current fiscal year. OMB officials have said President Bush personally set a longer-term goal of competing 50% of the 850,000 federal jobs that are classified as commercial in nature. Many members of Congress and the head of the General Accounting Office have attacked the goals as “arbitrary quotas.” While no measure to prohibit the use of the goals has yet been passed by Congress, several pending appropriations bills include various restrictions on competitive sourcing in the departments of Defense, Interior and Agriculture. The Bush administration has threatened to veto some of the bills over the issue. A House-Senate conference committee relaxed restrictions on outsourcing the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control activities. The conference committee said FAA can go ahead with competitive sourcing studies on 2,700 flight service specialists, who provide weather briefings for pilots. It also approved competitive sourcing of air traffic controllers at several dozen small airports, and would allow competitive sourcing of all air traffic control jobs in 2008. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said he will move on the Senate floor to resurrect the ban on outsourcing at FAA. In a July 24 report on the competitive sourcing initiative, OMB said it has negotiated “Agency-specific competition plans that are customized, based on considered research and sound analysis, to address the agency’s mission and workforce mix; and will be continually refined to reflect changed circumstances…” OMB released several departments’ plans for the first round of competitive sourcing: —The Agriculture Department plans to compete 5,822 jobs, or 5.9% of its workforce. —The Education Department plans to compete 220 jobs, 4.6% of its total. —The Energy Department plans to compete 1,180 jobs, 7.8% of its total. —Health and Human Services plans to compete 2,510 jobs, 3.9% of its total. —The Interior Department plans to compete 3,041 jobs, 4.3% of its total. Of that number, 1,700 are in the National Park Service, the service’s director, Fran Mainella, told a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee July 24. Plans from all other departments and agencies are scheduled to be released next month. In developing their plans, OMB said, “agencies are generally focusing use of public-private competition on commonly available routine commercial services where there are likely to be numerous capable and highly competitive private sector contractors worthy of comparison to agency providers.” “OMB and the agencies will monitor costs and results achieved,” the report added. OMB’s report repeated its assertion that job competitions produce savings ranging from 10% to 40% even when an agency’s in-house team wins, because the government employees reorganize their work to achieve greater efficiency. “Studies show when the private sector does win a public-private competition, a small, women-owned or minority-owned business wins 60% of the time,” OMB said. Styles has repeatedly said the administration doesn’t care who wins a competition; federal employee unions have repeatedly said they don’t believe that.