Panel backs competitive sourcing measures favorable to federal employees

The chairman of a House panel stripped the fiscal 2005 Transportation-Treasury bill of the competitive sourcing provisions included in last year's budget package, but panel members on Thursday restored some of that language by passing a bipartisan amendment.

Approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies, the amendment allows incumbent workers, usually federal employees, to form a team and defend jobs against contractors in any competitive sourcing study with more than 10 positions at stake. In-house teams would receive a 10 percent or $10 million cost advantage in those contests.

Last year's omnibus spending package contained similar language, but that language only applied to agencies covered by the Transportation-Treasury section of the bill. The fiscal 2004 spending act also failed to mandate the cost advantage. Instead, Transportation-Treasury agencies were to "consider cost as one factor."

Federal employee unions applauded the stronger fiscal 2005 measure. The American Federation of Government Employees hailed the amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Frank Wolf, R-Va., as a "victory for fairness in privatization reviews." National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley called the language a "very positive development."

"The inclusion of my amendment will ensure that when public-private competition occurs, the process will be fair, maximize the interests of taxpayers, and ensure that federal employees work in an environment that allows them to fairly compete with contractors for their jobs," said Hoyer in a written statement.

The measure has a long way to go before becoming law. Last year, preliminary versions of the Transportation-Treasury bill contained similar language, along with a provision expanding federal employees' rights to appeal job-competition decisions and other language considered favorable to in-house teams.

The Bush administration threatened to veto the final spending bill over some of the competitive sourcing provisions, and brokered a deal to water down the language. Congress later wrapped the Transportation-Treasury bill into the omnibus spending package, which contained the much weaker compromise.

Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., one of the authors of last year's language, eliminated the entire competitive sourcing section from the fiscal 2005 Transportation-Treasury bill, prompting Hoyer and Wolf to offer the amendment.

The measure only addresses the ability to form in-house teams in contests with more than 10 jobs and the cost advantage. Other compromise language in the fiscal 2004 package, including a requirement that agencies submit reports to Congress on competitive sourcing activities, remains stripped from the preliminary version of the fiscal 2005 Transportation-Treasury bill.