The House-passed fiscal 2011 defense spending bill includes an amendment that would require non-defense agencies to inventory service contracts to determine which ones are under performing – and thus flagged for potential insourcing — as well as include functions that are too important or sensitive to outsource.
At a recent hearing before the Senate federal workforce subcommittee, GAO suggested inventories to identify inherently governmental functions could facilitate efforts to “right-size” the federal workforce or other insourcing efforts.
Offered by Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., the House amendment also would prevent agencies from establishing any numerical goal, target or quota for the conversion of work from contractors to federal employees.
The amendment essentially applies governmentwide those and certain other contracting standards set for DoD in various laws in recent years. It closes what sponsors called a loophole allowing work to be contracted out in certain circumstances without an assessment of the cost implications, and requires all agencies to create a contractor inventory.
The Senate version of the bill does not contain similar language. Differences will have to be worked out in a later conference after the Senate enacts its bill.
