Language Called ‘Egregious’

In its policy statement, the White House called the proposed limitations on its contracting initiative “egregious” and noted that the principle of competition “was unanimously adopted by the recent congressionally-mandated Commercial Activities Panel”-although that panel divided sharply on how competition should be carried out. “Now is the wrong time to short-circuit implementation of the common sense principle of competition — a proven prescription for reaping significant cost savings and performance enhancements — especially since numerous agencies are starting to make real progress. Prohibiting the funding for public-private competitions is akin to mandating a monopoly regardless of the impact on services to citizens and the added costs to taxpayers,” it says.