Dems take control of House, changing oversight dynamics

As Democrats gained a majority of seats in the House late Tuesday night, with Senate leadership still in the balance, federal employee groups and industry associations were preparing to tilt their strategies toward a more labor-friendly 110th Congress. More so than for many policy areas, governmental affairs -- including the creation and modification of the Homeland Security Department, personnel reforms that move government employees to a pay-for-performance model, contracting, outsourcing of federal jobs and new training requirements for managers -- have often been dictated more by lawmakers' personal interests than their political affiliation. But the Democratic takeover in the House means some issues could gain new traction. One of federal employees' staunchest supporters in Congress, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is one of the two leading candidates to become House majority leader. "We've never had somebody who is as good a friend that far up in the leadership before," said Dan Adcock, assistant director of legislation at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees association, a lobbying group. "So having someone like him will be invaluable to the entire federal community." Hoyer could have the power, for example, to block a vote to draw down federal entitlements such as health insurance and retirement benefits to reduce the federal deficit, as some Republicans suggested in the September 2005 "Operation Offset" to counteract costs from Hurricane Katrina. Protecting those programs is NARFE's top priority, Adcock said. J. David Cox, national vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees, said he wants the government to increase spending on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, bringing the government's share of insurance premiums from about 72 percent to 80 percent. Committee Leadership

At the committee level, too, Democrats in the House could set a more proactive federal employee agenda. For example, officials at the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents Customs and Border Protection employees in the Homeland Security Department, think they will have a better chance of finally getting law enforcement officer status for CBP officers. The status comes with an earlier retirement and a more generous annuity. Legislation to make such a change would land in the House Homeland Security Committee, where Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has served as ranking member. "There may be more bipartisan work on federal issues than some others, but there's not enough," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said. "Whoever is the chair of these committees decides what the agenda is. Someone like Bennie Thompson would look very seriously at this. He understands the issue." In the House Ways and Means Committee, replacing Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., could open up other possibilities. "Anytime there's a change to the tax code, an increase in [Federal Employee Health Benefits Program] premiums, tax-free status for retirees, those things all have to go through Ways and Means," said Thomas Richards, director of government affairs for the Federal Managers Association. "And we have not had the friendliest of chairmen in recent history."

On the government oversight committees, observers say the Democrats' gains will almost certainly lead to greater scrutiny of executive branch operations.

Philip Joyce, a professor of public policy and public administration at The George Washington University, said homeland security is a likely focus, including questions arising from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Federal Emergency Management Agency reform.

"The whole question of who's getting rich in Iraq might be one the Democrats would want to focus on" too, Joyce said. The House and Senate have both done some oversight of Iraq reconstruction spending, but Republican leaders have been loath to dig too deeply into an area that could cause embarrassment for the White House.

Joyce said Democrats also could choose to further investigate possible connections between corrupt former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and White House officials. David Safavian, the former procurement chief of the Office of Management and Budget, was sentenced in October to 18 months in prison for lying about and obstructing an investigation into his dealings with Abramoff while serving as the chief of staff at the General Services Administration.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has said he will work with his colleagues across the aisle in conducting oversight as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. But he has expressed an intention to dig deeply into fraud, waste and abuse across government, which could divide the committee.

Waxman has said federal contracting is an area of particular interest. Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association, an industry group, said Waxman's participation in a group called the House Democratic Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Truth Squad, which introduced the 2006 Clean Contracting Act, bodes poorly for his bipartisan intentions.

"This is a very politically driven bill," Jahn said, which is aimed squarely at Halliburton and other companies considered friendly with the administration. He said the group is interested in working with Democrats, "but not if they're just scoring political points."

Jonathan Breul, a senior fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government, said oversight is necessary but the question is whether it is done constructively, by focusing on a few issues that need attention. He expressed concern that in the area of agency financial management, where Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., has been active in working with DHS and other agencies to improve their audits, progress could be lost if a Democratic champion does not emerge. Working Within Constraints

Both Richards, of the Federal Managers Association, and Adcock, of NARFE, said the budgetary pressures on Democrats will be the same as they have been for the Republicans, so some initiatives that have long been on federal employees' and retirees' wish lists are still unlikely to advance in the 110th Congress.

Adcock pointed out that the last time there was a federal entitlement cut was 1993, with Democrats in control of Congress when lawmakers voted for a three-month delay in the cost-of-living adjustment for federal retirees.

Controversial issues such as extending federal benefits to domestic partners -- a proposal that has been introduced several times but has not made headway -- could be more of a political gamble.

"Democrats could be worried about providing cannon fodder to the conservative right," said Donald Kettl, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government. "On the other hand, there are some Democrats who have been waiting in policy terms for a very long time" to advance some social causes.

Federal labor unions certainly feel they have been waiting for a long time to advance their causes. Primary amongst them is the rollback of personnel reforms in the Homeland Security and Defense departments.

"We'll actually be playing offense for a change," said Matt Biggs, legislative director for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.

Biggs, who is also a spokesman for the coalition of Defense Department unions that coalesced to block the National Security Personnel System, said unions will attempt to impede the reforms by pushing for oversight hearings and for legislative language to strip funding, refuse Defense officials' requests for deadline extensions and even reverse the program.

"We would expect more hearings on NSPS and a proactive approach on behalf of the Democrats to get rid of NSPS altogether," Biggs said.

As for the Bush administration's desire to extend similar personnel reforms to the entire government -- a goal administration officials said they would push again after the election -- stakeholders said the proposition is out of the question with Democrats in power.

Staying the Course And then there are many issues that advocates say will stay the same despite leadership changes. The Senior Executives Association is calling for legislative changes to the pay-for-performance system in the Senior Executive Service, following a survey the group conducted that found discontent among executives.

"We are really going to push for that as soon as we know what the congressional landscape looks like," said Bill Bransford, general counsel for the SEA. "It's a question of who we approach rather than what we say or how we go about it."

The SEA, along with the FMA and a handful of other groups that make up the Government Managers Coalition, will also continue to push for increased training for federal managers, new rules for saving sick leave and a longer probationary period for new employees. These are all politically neutral issues, Bransford said.

At least one issue -- the effort to add a Real Estate Investment Trust fund to federal employees' 401(k)-style Thrift Savings Plan -- is changed just by the end of the 109th Congress. With more than 200 cosponsors, the REIT bill seemed to have a high chance of passage. But the TSP's governing board, which opposes adding a REIT fund, hired a private consultant to study the addition of such a fund. The results of that study won't be ready until the new Congress takes its place. Reintroducing the bill may slow its momentum, and reduce the number of lawmakers who sign up again as cosponsors.

Competitive sourcing, the administration's program to boost competitions between federal employees and the private sector in areas not considered core to the government, is another initiative that may not change much with the power shift.

Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an industry group, said competitive sourcing is among the most politicized management issues and will likely be the subject of even more targeted language in spending and other bills. But CSA's Jahn said industry is already on the defensive on the issue, with federal employees winning more than 80 percent of job competitions according to recent OMB statistics.

Joyce, from George Washington University, said other aspects of the President's Management Agenda are likely to see little change. Lawmakers have been slow to take up the administration's program to score all federal programs on their effectiveness and link those ratings to budgets. Joyce quoted a saying that there are three parties in Congress -- Republicans, Democrats and appropriators -- and predicted that the initiative will continue to be panned by legislators loath to let go of any power.