Contracting, Other Policies Addressed

In a separate budget document, the administration would allow the current moratorium on starting new cost studies under OMB Circular A-76 to continue another year. The administration is conducting a review of that program, focusing on what jobs should be off-limits to such studies, and continuing the ban would give it more time to formulate its approach. That document also seeks to continue several long-running policies set by each year’s budget, including capping blue-collar employee raises at local rates for the GS, generally requiring that FEHB plans cover prescription contraceptives, requiring that agencies conduct credit checks on employees before issuing them travel charge cards, and barring the release of employee names and home addresses to unions except under court order or if the employee has consented. However, it seeks to drop another long-running provision which bars agencies from conducting training that is not directly job related and which may be offensive to participants or is designed to change their personal values.