Contracting, Other Issues Addressed

While the DoD authorization bill affects only employees of that agency, DoD continues to account for about half of the executive branch work force and provisions in that bill often are applied government-wide in later years. Other key provisions of the measure would: exclude certain expenditures from the requirement that at least half of depot maintenance work be performed in-house; change the definition of what is considered “core” logistics work to include acquisition logistics and certain management functions; allow DoD to contract for certain security guard functions by waiving a general requirement that they be done in-house; orders DoD to strengthen internal controls over purchase cards used by its employees; makes “non-appropriated fund” employees-who work at self-funding operations such as officers’ clubs-eligible under the federal long-term care insurance program; extends through fiscal 2006 the agency’s authority to make severance payments as a lump-sum rather than biweekly; and establishes a common standard for both white-collar and blue-collar employees for payment of hazardous duty differential pay for exposure to asbestos.