Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - June 13, 2006)

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, for the first time in 4 years, I will not offer an amendment to this bill to block the implementation of the May 2003 Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 regulations for contracting out work that is performed by Federal employees around the country.

The difference this year, Mr. Chairman, is that Chairman KNOLLENBERG and Ranking Member OLVER agreed to my request to include satisfactory language in the bill that is before us. I want to thank them for addressing this issue this year.

Both Federal Government employees and private contractors had serious legitimate concerns and complaints about the A-76 competitive sourcing process. The amendment I offered in past years essentially required OMB to go back to the drawing board and develop a uniform competitive sourcing process that addresses everybody's concerns. Despite strong objections and veto threats from the White House, we had spirited debates in the three previous appropriations cycles on the Van Hollen amendment, and each year the House approved the amendment with bipartisan majorities.

We passed the Van Hollen amendment for the last 3 years because we recognized that the contracting out process was unfair. That was evidenced by the fact that we passed a number of bills to change the contracting out process on an ad hoc basis in numerous Federal agencies, including Defense, Homeland Security, Interior and Agriculture. But the result was a patchwork of inconsistent regulations. The Van Hollen amendment was intended to replace that patchwork of inconsistent regulations with a uniform set of rules fair to all. It did not get rid of the competitive sourcing rules. In essence, it required OMB to go back to the rules that were in place before May 2003 until it fashioned a new set of rules that make sense for everybody.

In fiscal year 2005 the Senate approved language similar to the Van Hollen amendment, but even though both Houses approved similar language it did not survive a closed-door TTHUD conference. Last year, in fiscal year 2006, the Senate approved language that was widely viewed as acceptable to the White House, however begrudgingly, and that language survived the conference and was signed into law. That language provided funding for A-76 competitions that allowed Federal workers to present their own most efficient organization, MEO, bid in a competitive sourcing competition, and required private contractor bids to provide for a minimum cost differential, MCD, savings of at least 10 percent or $10 million over the MEO bid. While these public-private competition requirements did not address all of the concerns of Federal employees pertaining to appeal rights, these requirements were considerable improvements in the competitive sourcing process.

But now, Mr. Chairman, we are in a brand new fiscal year cycle and once again we need to address critical matters related to the contracting out process. We should not have to do this every year in the appropriations process, Mr. Speaker, but we will repeat this debate year after year until Congress takes definitive action and authorizes competitive sourcing regulations that are fair to Federal employees and private contractors.

This year is somewhat different, however. This year, Chairman KNOLLENBERG and Ranking Member OLVER have had the foresight to include competitive souring language in the base fiscal year 2007 appropriations bill that mirrors the MEO/MCD language that was signed into law last year. Therefore, there is no need to offer the amendment I have offered in the past.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the TTHUD appropriations bill on the floor today includes forward-looking language pertaining to A-76 competitive sourcing that precludes the need to offer my amendment again this year. I look forward to working with the leadership of the Appropriations Committee and with the authorizers on the House Committee on Government Reform in the future to devise a permanent fix to the A-76 process that is fair to Federal workers and private contractors and that provides American taxpayers with the efficient, cost-effective and quality services they demand and deserve.

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