Agency-Specific Limits Also in Play

The House has passed bills that would restrict contracting-out at the Interior Department and Forest Service (HR-2691) and the Agriculture Department (HR-2673) by denying funding to conduct privatization studies, while the Senate added limiting language to a bill covering the Defense Department (S-1382) that would require the agency to allow employees of functions employing 10 or more people to reorganize into the “most efficient organization” before that function is considered for contractor performance and gives those now performing the function a 10 percent cost advantage in the comparison; current policy imposes those requirements only on functions employing 65 or more. That provision also prohibits considering health benefit costs in the competitions, to remove an incentive for contractors to win by not providing their employees with those benefits. In each case, further action is needed before the bills are in final form.