OMB releases second round of FAIR Act lists

More than 53,000 jobs at 35 federal agencies could be performed in the private sector, according to the government's latest tally of commercial jobs, released Monday by the Office of Management and Budget.

The inventory, which includes the Interior and Housing and Urban Development departments, includes 53,880 commercial jobs that are eligible for outsourcing under the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act. It is the second inventory of commercial jobs for fiscal 2002. Fifty-five federal agencies have reported that 129,284 jobs could be outsourced to date.

OMB also released a list of "inherently governmental" jobs at the agencies, which by law must be performed by federal employees. The agencies classified 74,754 jobs as inherently governmental.

OMB uses FAIR Act lists in its competitive sourcing initiative, which requires agencies to hold public-private job competitions on certain percentages of their commercial jobs. The budget office has told agencies to compete 15 percent of their commercial jobs by October 2003, although some agencies will compete fewer jobs.

As in past years, some agencies did not put their FAIR Act inventories on their Web sites. Neither the Interior Department nor the Office of Management and Budget-also included in the release-had posted their FAIR Act lists by Wednesday afternoon.