Union concerned that passport jobs could be contracted out
NFFE wants positions classified as inherently governmental so they can be filled only by government workers.
A federal employee union has asked the State Department to declare the jobs of 1,400 passport workers inherently governmental and therefore outside the reach of contractors.
The request from the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents workers in State's passport services division, was prompted by the publication of the department's 2007 Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act report.
NFFE Local 1998 President Colin Walle said the department left the acceptance and verification duty of passport agents off its inventory, which categorizes job responsibilities as inherently governmental -- meaning only a federal employee can perform them -- or commercial in nature.
"In failing to classify passport agents as [either inherently governmental or commercial] it appears that the State Department may be laying the groundwork to permanently privatize the passport function," Walle said.
The department declined to comment on NFFE's request. "As the union has styled its correspondence as an appeal, we will not comment while this matter is pending," said a State official, who requested anonymity.
In a July 29 letter to Jason Passaro, director of the State Department's Competitive Sourcing Program Office, NFFE President Richard Brown said the job of accepting a passport application and verifying the information has at least eight different characteristics that make it inherently governmental.
The position involves official discretion, plays a role in national security and preventing terrorism, and is intimately related to the public's interest, he said.
"Ultimately, the question of determining whether the applicant is who he/she claims to be is a value judgment, and the question of determining if enough identifying evidence has been submitted is a matter involving government discretion," Brown wrote. "The job does not just involve recording the identification, giving an oath and taking the applicant's money."
A department official countered that not all the functions performed by passport workers are necessarily inherently governmental, a position supported by an October 2007 decision from State's Office of the Legal Adviser in response to a separate complaint by NFFE.
"The decision to issue a passport is inherently a function to be exercised by the government," the official said. "However, the process of granting and issuing passports, and the process of accepting and executing passport applications from American citizens, are two separate and distinct processes."
NFFE has been on edge about the passport jobs since 2007, when State hired Arlington, Va., contractor Stanley Associates to help reduce record application backlogs. Contract workers were given certain duties previously performed exclusively by federal workers, such as accepting fees and certifying that an applicant's travel documents were in order, Walle said.
Other functions, including determining citizenship and informing applicants if and when their passports would be ready, were considered inherently government and continued to be performed by federal employees, Walle said. Federal workers also were asked to train and oversee the contractors.
No federal employees lost their jobs as a result of the change.
The backlog has been reduced substantially, but Walle credits the work of State Department employees temporarily transferred to the passport division last year and a high number of overtime hours.
"We don't need contractors to do this work and never did," he said.
The union points to a July 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office on passport and visa security, which outlines the potential dangers of outsourcing passport functions.
The report concluded that incidences of passport fraud occur most often when applicants submit genuine identification documents obtained under assumed identities. In 2006, GAO said, this method accounted for nearly 65 percent of a confirmed passport fraud cases investigated by State's Diplomatic Security Bureau.
"This [contracting] policy reversal has serious repercussions for the security of our nation," Walle said. "Without the extensive training and know-how of federal employees, dangerous criminals -- even terrorists -- can slip through the cracks of the application process undetected."