Several of the House-passed appropriations bills for fiscal 2005 contain language affecting contracting policy at the agencies funded under those bills. These include: HR-4751, the Commerce-Justice-State bill that would bar the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from setting up a privatized national customer service center and consolidating field offices until complying with certain reporting requirements; HR-4567 for the Department of Homeland Security, which bars a study of contracting-out certain immigration officer, contract representative and investigative assistant jobs on grounds that those jobs are inherently governmental; and HR-4568 for the Interior Department and related agencies that would require full cost studies before contracting-out functions employing more than 10 federal employees and allow jobs to be converted only if the projected savings were at least 10 percent or $10 million; and the Transportation-Treasury measure, which would impose similar requirements government-wide. President Bush already has signed the fiscal 2005 spending bill for the Defense Department that carries a similar provision affecting DoD.
Fedweek
Several Spending Bills Focus on Contracting
By: fedweek