Lawmaker raps Bush administration on pay raise, outsourcing

A House lawmaker on Tuesday briefed Food and Drug Administration employees on the status of bills affecting pay and benefits, outsourcing and the creation of a Department of Homeland Security.

More than 100 federal employees at an FDA facility in College Park, Md. had an opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns with Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government. The hour-long event was sponsored by the agency's local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union.

The Bush administration's competitive sourcing policy, which directs agencies to put 15 percent of federal jobs considered commercial in nature up for competition by October 2003, drew concerns from the audience. Hoyer said he supported language inserted into the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal appropriations bill that would prevent the administration from enforcing its policy.

"I was very displeased with the administration's plan to set arbitrary quotas that would require federal agencies to compete or directly convert 50 percent of their commercial jobs," Hoyer said. "To meet these targets, agencies will have to bypass the competitive process in some circumstances. That is wrong, unfair, and could end up costing the taxpayers more in the long run."

Hoyer also expressed displeasure with the president's plan to give a 4.1 percent pay raise to military workers in 2003, while supporting a 2.6 percent raise for civilian employees. When the proposed raises were announced in February, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels said military employees deserved the larger pay raise because they "are in harm's way at time of war."

"I believe anything less than a 4.l percent pay adjustment sends the regrettable message that the services federal employees provide to America every day are not valued," said Hoyer, who noted that the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill includes a provision giving federal employees a 4.1 percent pay raise.

"So we can be competitive in retaining and recruiting the people that we need to have in this government to make it a success,…we're going to be fighting for the 4.1 percent raise," Hoyer said.

The longtime lawmaker told employees that he opposed the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, but not primarily because of the ongoing dispute over labor rights for the 170,000 employees merged into the organization.

"It's not where you put the chairs, it's whether or not the chairs talk to each other that's important," Hoyer explained. According to Hoyer, creating a new Department of Homeland Security will undermine security in the short term, as it will take at least five years, by his estimate, to "get all the chairs moved around." Rather than create a new department, Hoyer suggested the Bush administration stick with the structure already created and allow Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to direct homeland security efforts.

"OMB has what, 600 or 700 employees, and they can manage the whole federal government," Hoyer said. "Tom Ridge can take 200 or 300 people and craft a policy and plan to keep America safe."