The budget measure to carry most agencies through the remainder of the current fiscal year sends several signals regarding the possible future of the contracting-out program, which the Bush administration pushed as part of its management agenda but whose future was put in doubt by last November’s elections.
The measure to fund most agencies through the September 30 end of the current fiscal year–only DoD, VA and DHS got full-year funding in last year’s congressional budget process–includes several provisions that Congress had drafted as part of appropriations bills that were left by the wayside due to budget disputes with the Bush White House.
One of those provisions would bar agencies from starting any new contracting-out studies for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Another seeks to strengthen previously enacted "in-sourcing" policies that had little if any practical effect during the Bush administration but that might be used by Obama administration officials as a justification for having federal employees do certain work that otherwise might go to contractors.
The language tells agencies to issue policies "to ensure that consideration is given to using, on a regular basis, federal employees to perform new functions and functions that are performed by contractors and could be performed by federal employees."
For new work, the language says that "special consideration" should be given to having in-house employees perform work that is similar to a function previously performed by federal employees or is closely associated with the performance of an inherently governmental function. For work already under contract, special consideration is to be given to work that has been performed by federal employees within the last 10 years, is closely associated with the performance of an inherently governmental function, was given to a contractor on a non-competitive basis, or when there have been cost or quality problems in the contractor’s performance.
