President Bush has signed into law the fiscal 2006
appropriations bill covering the Agriculture Department
(P.L. 109-97), which bars use of money appropriated under
the act to study, complete a study of, or enter into a
contract with a private party to carry out, without
specific authorization in a subsequent act of Congress,
a competitive sourcing activity, including support personnel
of the Department of Agriculture, relating to rural
development or farm loan programs.
The action is the latest in a series of restrictions that
the administration has accepted despite its opposition to
limitations on its competitive sourcing—contracting
out—initiative. President Bush already has signed an
appropriations measure covering the Department of Homeland
Security that bars contracting-out cost competitions for
Immigration information officers, contact representatives,
or investigative assistants in the DHS Bureau of Citizenship
and Immigration Services, as well as another measure that
restricted the amount of money available for such studies
in the Forest Service and required consideration of the
impact on wildland fire management activities when
conducting the studies.
More severe restrictions are proposed in two pending measures
affecting the Defense Department—both its authorization bill
and its appropriations bill—as well as government-wide
restrictions in pending the Transportation-Treasury
appropriations bill. The White House has issued statements
opposing those restrictions, as well.
