Agencies report 75,000 jobs could be outsourced

More than 75,000 federal jobs in nearly two dozen agencies could be performed by private-sector workers, according to the first round of 2002 job inventories released Thursday under the 1998 Federal Activities and Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act.

Twenty-two agencies, including NASA and the Treasury Department, were included in the first round of 2002 FAIR Act lists published by the Office of Management and Budget in Thursday's Federal Register. Of the 242,843 jobs included in the first round, 31 percent, or 75,404 positions, are eligible to be performed in the private sector under the rules of the FAIR Act.

For the first time, the release included not just these commercial jobs, but lists of agencies' "inherently governmental" jobs, which by law are off-limits for outsourcing. The agencies categorized 69 percent of their jobs, a total of 167,439 positions, as inherently governmental. Although agencies submitted their lists of inherently governmental jobs to OMB during the 2001 job inventory process, those lists were not published.

The FAIR Act requires agencies to compile annual inventories of jobs that are "commercial in nature" and could be performed by contractors. Every year OMB reviews the lists and releases them to Congress and the public in three rounds. Agencies' FAIR Act inventories for 2002 were due to OMB on June 30.

OMB has said that requiring agencies to submit inherently governmental jobs allows officials to better scrutinize agencies' FAIR Act lists, ensuring that the FAIR Act inventories are accurate. Under the FAIR Act, contractors, unions and employees can challenge the lists if they think jobs should have been, or should not have been, included.

Federal employee unions were quick to criticize the latest inventories. "This is a corporate wish list, not an inventory," said Brendan Danaher, a policy analyst for the American Federation of Government Employees.

Danaher said AFGE challenged several jobs that were eligible for competition on the 2001 FAIR Act inventories. For example, the union disputed the idea that cafeteria jobs at federal prisons were not inherently governmental. Employees who work in prison cafeterias must be ready to respond to riots, so they are properly characterized as federal law enforcement personnel, Danaher said.

The administration has a "one-size approach" to job competition and "that is a major problem," Danaher said.

As part of the president's management agenda, the administration sought to put teeth into the FAIR Act by ordering agencies in March 2001 to directly outsource or perform public-private competitions on 5 percent of the jobs on their 2000 FAIR Act inventories of commercial jobs by October 2002. In budget guidance for fiscal 2003, OMB directed agencies to outsource or perform public-private competitions on an additional 10 percent of all commercial jobs by October 2003.

Some of the larger agencies included in the first round of 2002 job inventories, such as NASA and Treasury, "are making good solid progress towards achieving cost savings and performance enhancements through competitive sourcing," said OMB spokeswoman Amy Call. "The taxpayer wins when commercial jobs are opened up to all Americans, whether entrepreneurs, organized labor or federal employees," she said.

Most of the agencies included in this year's first round have relatively small budgets and staffs. The largest agencies on Thursday's list included NASA, Treasury, the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Health and Human Services Department.

Last week, Army Secretary Thomas White approved a plan under which more than 200,000 Army jobs could be put up for competition with private firms. Those include positions on the service's FAIR Act inventory of commercial jobs and other positions defined as "noncore."