White House criticizes language in Interior appropriations bill

The version of the 2005 Interior appropriations bill under debate in the House contains language that would hamper agencies' ability to carry out the competitive sourcing and e-government initiatives, Bush administration officials said Wednesday.

As presented by the House Appropriations Committee, the legislation would limit the Energy Department to spending $500,000 on competitive sourcing studies in fiscal 2005. The bill also places a $2.5 million ceiling on the Interior Department and a $2 million cap on the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department but receives funds from Interior appropriations.

In a statement of administration policy, the White House voiced concern about the language but stopped short of issuing a veto threat, as it has done for competitive sourcing language in past spending legislation and, most recently, the fiscal 2005 Defense Authorization bill. The spending limits are unnecessary, officials said, and force "agencies to make decisions based solely on cost considerations, rather than both cost and quality."

The Energy and Interior departments are already operating under the same caps, imposed by language in the 2004 appropriations bill enacted last November. Appropriators have lowered the Forest Service's limit by $3 million, but agency officials last week said the new ceiling won't pose a problem, as the agency is not beginning new studies.

The limits apply to money spent on ongoing competitions as well new contests. Appropriators placed the limits in the legislation partly because of worries that competitive sourcing costs are spiraling out of control, particularly at the Forest Service. White House officials said they would prefer lawmakers to eliminate the caps and "work with the administration to refine reporting on costs."

Administration officials also expressed concern over language that would prohibit the agencies covered under the Interior bill from contributing funds to four e-government programs: Project Safecom, an initiative to improve communications among first responders; disaster management, a project aiding emergency response efforts; e-training, an initiative aimed at providing online courses for federal employees, and e-rule-making, an initiative designed to grant the public greater influence over the process of writing federal regulations.

"The provision . . . will hamper achieving the goal of e-government, which is to create a more citizen-centered government rather than an agency-centered one," the administration stated. "Without full agency participation, the federal government's ability to deliver information and services to the citizen will be greatly undermined."