Senator moves to end Bush privatization plan

September 18, 2003
Senator moves to bar new job competitions at Interior, Forest Service

By Amelia Gruber


http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0903/091803a1.htm


During a Wednesday debate over the Interior appropriations bill, the
Senate minority whip proposed language that would prevent the Interior
Department and Forest Service from putting more federal jobs up for
competition.


The amendment, offered by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., would block
Interior and the Forest Service (which is part of the Agriculture
Department but which receives funds from the Interior bill), from
initiating new competitive sourcing studies in fiscal 2004. These
agencies could complete studies already underway.


As it has done for several other budget bills recently, the White
House threatened to veto the Interior appropriations package if the
final version contains language limiting President Bush's competitive
sourcing initiative. The initiative is one component of Bush's
five-part management agenda.


Amendments halting job competitions would "short-circuit" progress
already made on competitive sourcing, the Office of Management and
Budget said in a policy statement. "Prohibiting public-private
competitions is akin to mandating a monopoly regardless of the impact
on services to citizens and the added costs to taxpayers."


The administration used the same wording in early September to oppose
an amendment to the House Treasury-Transportation bill that would
scrap revisions to OMB Circular A-76, which sets the rules for
public-private competitions. House lawmakers nevertheless passed the
amendment by a margin of 22 votes.


"We cannot let [job competitions] go forward," Reid told fellow
senators. "It's a slap in the face to dedicated public servants and
it's a slap in the face to the American public. Renting [Park Service
work] out to the lowest bidder is not the way to go."


The National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington-based
advocacy group, applauded the amendment. The Park Service is part of
the Interior Department.


"The Park Service, comprised of some of the most dedicated and
underpaid public servants in our nation, is the guardian of our most
precious natural and cultural treasures," said Thomas Kiernan, the
group's president, in Sept. 17 letter urging senators to support the
Reid amendment. "Our collective American heritage should not be placed
at risk by a politically driven, inside-the-Beltway, top-down strategy
that places the guardianship of our parks in the hands of the lowest
bidder."


Senators did not debate Reid's amendment after he introduced it
Wednesday evening. The Senate does not plan to vote on the budget
bill, or amendments to it, until next week.


In July, the House passed a version of the Interior appropriations
bill containing the same provision Reid proposed. Rep. Pete Sessions,
R-Texas, opposed the language but agreed to hold his complaints until
the bill reaches House-Senate negotiations.


Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an
Arlington, Va.-based contractors association, said Reid's amendment
contributes to a "guerilla war" on competitive sourcing and replicates
an "overreach in the House that . . . a lot of folks [there] now view
as an overreach."