Federal agencies must prepare lists of employees' jobs that could be outsourced under rules proposed by the Office of Management and Budget on Monday.
OMB's proposed rules, which require agencies to submit the target lists to OMB by June 30 each year, are mandated by the Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998. The act directs agencies to submit a list to OMB each year of all their activities, such as technical support and cafeteria maintenance, that are performed by federal employees and are not inherently governmental. Agencies must also report to OMB the number of federal employees who currently perform functions that could be outsourced. The lists will be published in the Federal Register.
The act then calls on agencies to review the commercial activities lists "within a reasonable time" to decide whether to outsource the jobs.
OMB's proposed rules include procedures for people to protest the inclusion or exclusion of activities on the lists. For example, federal employees' unions could challenge an agency's assertion that an activity is not inherently governmental, while private firms could challenge an agency's decision that an activity could not be outsourced.
If an agency decides to outsource an activity on its list, then it must follow OMB Circular A-76 procedures, which require a public-private competition for the work. The federal employees who currently perform the work compete against private-sector bidders in the A-76 process.
The Defense Department is conducting A-76 competitions for 229,000 employees' jobs from 1997 through 2005. But most other agencies have not jumped on the A-76 bandwagon. The FAIR Act is an attempt to get other agencies to use A-76 procedures more frequently.
OMB published its proposed rules in the Mar. 1 Federal Register.
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