Hill Considers Limits on Contracting

Meanwhile, Congress is continuing to seek restrictions on contracting-out policy as part of the annual spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year, setting up potential fights with the White House when those bills come up for final voting. The House Appropriations Committee has approved language as part of the Transportation-Treasury spending measure requiring agencies to report on how much they spend on consultants to operate cost comparisons between in-house and possible contractor performance; because many agencies lack the expertise to conduct those studies themselves, many have turned to contractors to see if work should be performed by other contractors, an arrangement that federal employee organizations say stacks the deck against in-house employees. The language also would require reporting on the scope and cost of competitive sourcing programs, including how much they are spending on using in-house employees to conduct the studies.