Contracting Restrictions Also Arising

By: fedweek

The annual appropriations bill covering general government matters for many years has been used—even under Republican leadership—as a vehicle for restricting contracting-out policies. The language, which seems on track to be repeated this year, effectively overrides two of the changes the administration made in 2003 to Circular A-76, the contracting-out guidance, by requiring that the in-house side be allowed to reorganize into a “most efficient organization” and by requiring that functions involving more than 10 in-house employees can be privatized only if the bid shows savings of at least 10 percent or $10 million. This year’s measure also would restrict funding for an IRS program of using private debt collectors to collect unpaid taxes. Other agency-specific restrictions likely will arise in other appropriations bills; for example, the House energy and water spending bill would bar contracting-out studies in the Army Corps of Engineers.