Energy And Water Development And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 19, 2007)

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Chairman, this Republican minority is intensely interested in making sure that we do the right thing for the country, but it should be noted that these bills should not be about economic development, they should be about solving water problems that we have with the dollars that are generated by the taxpayer to solve problems with water, with flooding and with the various elements of ensuring we have clean and better water that is available.

This should not be an economic development spending bill. I disagree with the gentleman from Ohio, and it is my hope that this body will recognize this economic development spending bill for what it is, as opposed to a water resources bill. I am disappointed to hear that it's characterized that way. And that is why we support the gentleman from Georgia with his amendment.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would strike section 105 of this legislation which as drafted would prevent the funds spent by this bill from being used to conduct public-private competitions or to direct A-76 conversions for any Army Corps of Engineers program, project, or activity.

This underlying language would present an enormous setback for competition in government sourcing, costing the Federal Government millions of dollars a year by preventing private sector contracting in the Army Corps of Engineers for everything from janitorial and food services to the engineering and design of locks and dams which private sector contractors have done competitively for years at the Federal, State, and local levels.

While this policy may be good for increasing dues payments to public sector union bosses, it is unquestionably bad for taxpayers and for Federal agencies because these agencies will have less money to spend on their core missions if the opportunity to use competition and private sector efficiencies is taken away from them.

In 2006, Federal agencies competed only 1.7 percent of their commercial workforce, which makes up less than one-half of 1 percent of the entire civilian workforce. This very small use of competition for services is expected to generate savings of $1.3 billion over the next 5-10 years.

Competitions completed since 2003 are expected to produce almost $7 billion in savings for taxpayers over the next 5-10 years. This means that taxpayers will receive a return of about $31 for every dollar spent on competition, with an annualized expected savings of more than $1 billion.

At the Corps, in 2006 three public/private competitions were competed, involving IT support, financial services, and public works.

The largest of these, dealing with IT support services, has a projected savings of $960 million over a 6-year period. By introducing competition and leveraging the government's size to reduce equipment maintenance and replacement, the government will now be able to save almost $1 billion, but without my amendment, similar future efforts will be impossible.

Mr. Chairman, in this time of stretched budgets and bloated Federal spending, Congress should be looking to use all of the tools it can to find taxpayer savings and to reduce the cost of services that very easily can be found in the Yellow Pages.

I insert into the Record at this point a letter of support for this amendment from the American Society of Civil Engineers and a letter of support for the amendment from the Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services.

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