Contracting Disputes Also Coming

By: fedweek

Another issue of wide interest to be debated in the appropriations bills is contracting-out policy, what the administration prefers to call competitive sourcing. Numerous restrictions have been written into spending bills barring cost studies for certain components of agencies, including: wildland firefighting at Interior; Bureau of Prisons jobs at Justice; certain jobs at the Army Corps of Engineers; certain immigration-related jobs at DHS; farm loan jobs at Agriculture; and a moratorium at Labor pending a GAO review. In addition, several bills would continue past language restricting the conditions under which contracts can be granted, expand the right of employees to appeal contracting decisions, and bar contractors from gaining an advantage by spending less on employee health or retirement benefits than the government does per employee. The White House opposes all of those provisions but has accepted similar language many times in the past and has not threatened to veto any of the measures over such restrictions.