Restrictions also Sought for USDA

Meanwhile, the House has passed an appropriations bill (HR-2744) covering the Agriculture Department that prevents the department from contracting-out rural development or farm loan functions without specific authorization from Congress. That is the latest of a series of restrictions on the program backed by the House in fiscal 2006 spending measures that are now before the Senate. Other measures include language that would restrict contracting-out initiatives in all or parts of the Forest Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Homeland Security. The Bush administration has put out a series of policy statements opposing each of the restrictions in turn.