Contracting Restriction Advances

Both the House and Senate have given their final approval to an appropriations bill (HR-2658) that would guarantee Defense Department workplaces involved in contracting-out cost studies could reorganize into a “most efficient organization” for purposes of comparing in-house costs versus contractor bids. The language further would keep a requirement that the contractor bid must be at least 10 percent lower for the work to be contracted-out. The changes would have the effect of repealing two provisions in contracting-out rules the administration released in the spring that guarantee those protections only when the function employs 65 or more workers. Numerous other restrictions on contracting-out are pending in other appropriations bills now awaiting final approval.