Omnibus preserves controversial job competition measures
With President Bush's signing of the fiscal 2004 omnibus budget bill on Friday, a season of heated debate over competitive sourcing language in budget bills has drawn to a close.
The legislation signed by Bush on Jan. 23 remains unchanged from a controversial compromise version of the bill completed in late November 2003. In that version, the White House convinced House-Senate negotiators to remove language that would have granted federal employees and union representatives the right to protest job competition decisions before the General Accounting Office.
The move angered federal employee unions and supportive lawmakers, but the House approved the compromise language in early December and the Senate signed off on the bill last week.
Contractor groups applauded the compromise, saying that protest rights included in drafts of the legislation opened up too many opportunities for unions to dispute job competition results. But federal employee unions have said that agency teams do not stand a fair chance of defending their jobs against contractors unless they have an opportunity to challenge competition outcomes.
In addition, the spending package Bush signed into law sets multiple standards for running streamlined public-private job competitions where 10 to 65 positions are at stake. Agencies covered by the Transportation-Treasury section of the bill have different rules than those receiving funds from the other six appropriations measures wrapped into the omnibus.
Under the completed omnibus, Transportation-Treasury agencies have to allow in-house teams to submit bids in all public-private competitions involving more than 10 jobs. Agencies covered under the other six spending measures rolled into the omnibus are not required to do so.
The final omnibus requires Transportation-Treasury agencies to "consider cost as one factor" in awarding work in streamlined competitions. These agencies are not, however, forced to grant in-house teams a 10 percent or $10 million cost advantage. Agencies covered by the other sections of the omnibus need not even consider a cost advantage in competitions involving 10 to 65 jobs.
Critics have said that these multiple standards are likely to create chaos. Supporters have acknowledged the potential for confusion, but have also said they are pleased that the final omnibus eliminates the job competition protest rights provisions contained in earlier versions of budget legislation.
Though congressional negotiators ended up eliminating union-backed provisions from the omnibus, American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage said on Friday that he feels well-positioned to seek similar language during the next budget season. "AFGE will continue to lead the fight to reform the privatization process and protect from privatization those public services which are too important to entrust to narrow private interests," Gage said.
Besides establishing complex competitive sourcing standards, the omnibus bill signed by Bush allots $3 million to a fund for interagency electronic government projects. That amount is well below the sums requested by the administration and authorized in the 2002 E-Government Act. Congress also undercut the administration's request in fiscal 2003.
The e-government law, signed by Bush in December 2002, granted $345 million to fund interagency technology initiatives over four years, allowing $45 million for fiscal 2003, $50 million for fiscal 2004, $100 million for fiscal 2005, and $150 million for fiscal 2006. Before lawmakers come closer to these authorized sums, administration officials will need to educate them on the benefits of interagency e-government projects, former federal chief information officers have said.