Numerous Contracting Provisions in Play

By: fedweek

Still in progress in the House are a number of measures that would change contracting-out policies at the agencies they cover, including the Commerce-Justice-Science measure, which would bar contracting-out studies in the Bureau of Prisons, and the energy and water bill, which would ban them at the Army Corps of Engineers. Before taking its break, the House passed the Interior spending bill (HR-2643) that caps the amount that department can spend on studies next fiscal year at $3.5 million and that bars studies in the Forest Service. However, the House on a procedural move deleted language in the financial services-general government measure (HR-2829) that would have effectively killed an IRS program of contracting-out tax debt collection; opponents of that program will try again through free-standing bills.