Senate Votes Restrictions on Small Job Competitions By a one-vote margin, the Senate refused to join the House in blocking implementation of new rules governing competitive sourcing. Instead, senators voted new restrictions on competitions involving small numbers of employees. The amendment, sponsored by Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), would require contractors to beat the in-house offer by at least 10% in order to win a streamlined competition, involving units with 65 employees or fewer. The provision was added to the 2004 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill, H.R. 2989, passed by the Senate Oct. 23. “Restoring the 10% differential is critical,” Senator Collins said, “because if an outside contractor can’t save the government at least 10% on performing a particular function, then the costs associated with dislocation and change simply aren’t worth it.” In OMB’s revised Circular A-76, the 10% differential applies only to larger competitions. The Senate also voted to eliminate the requirement that jobs must be re-competed every five years after federal employees win a competition. That amendment, sponsored by Sen. Craig Thomas (R-ID), requires all agencies to file annual reports on the costs and savings generated by job competitions and gives federal employees the right to appeal to the General Accounting Office if they lose a competition. The House version of the Transportation-Treasury bill would block the new rules under Circular A-76. The White House has threatened a veto if that provision stays in the final bill that will be crafted by a House-Senate conference committee. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) sponsored the Senate amendment to block the new sourcing rules. “What I am opposed to is that this new A-76 is inherently unfair to Federal employees,” she told the Senate. “The deck is stacked against them to pursue an ideology-driven agenda, not a management reform agenda.” The Senate voted 48-47 against the Mikulski amendment. The Defense authorization bill passed by Congress places new restrictions on DOD outsourcing. In streamlined competitions involving 65 or fewer employees, it requires that contractors must beat the federal employees’ bid by at least 10% in order to win the work; and DOD employees must be permitted to restructure their work into a Most Efficient Organization before the sourcing competition begins. (SAA, 10/3) Several other challenges to the outsourcing rules are pending in conference committees. The House voted to block funding for competitions in the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service, but the senate rejected a similar amendment in its version of the Interior appropriations bill. That bill is now in conference committee. The House also rejected a request for funds to conduct competitions in the Veterans Affairs Department. All VA competitions have been halted because department lawyers say no funds have been appropriated for that purpose.