Contracting Issues 

Bill Introduced to Suspend Outsourcing Studies, Bring Outsourced Work In-House

An AFGE-backed bill that would suspend the job competition process and encourage insourcing was introduced in the House last week. The Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies' Unsustainable Procurements Act was introduced by Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., and was cosponsored by a bipartisan coalition of 50 lawmakers.

"This bill is about good government," said Rep. Sarbanes in a letter to his colleagues seeking co-sponsors of the bill. "Over the last decade, we have been much too quick to outsource many of government's most basic functions to the private sector. The desire to do so reflected a political ideology of shrinking government at all costs – even if it meant diminishing the quality of certain government services that are paid for and overwhelmingly supported by American taxpayers." 

The CLEAN UP Act is part of AFGE's years-long fight to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in contracting out. The Senate version of the bill was introduced in April by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. AFGE has launched an insourcing campaign to raise awareness among AFGE Locals and members to push their agencies to bring contracted out jobs back in-house. 090610

AFGE Kicks off Insourcing Campaign

AFGE has kicked off its campaign to raise awareness among AFGE Locals that now is the time to push their agencies to bring contracted out jobs back in-house. Following last month's introduction of the CLEAN UP Act, a bill that would suspend the job competition process and encourage insourcing, AFGE has been working to garner support among lawmakers to co-sign the Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements Act, S. 924, which currently has 10 co-sponsors in the Senate. The campaign is part of AFGE's years-long fight to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in contracting out. AFGE successfully fought back against the Bush administration's plan to contract out half of all federal employee jobs with the most recent victory being this fiscal year's ban on new outsourcing studies across government. The House version of the CLEAN UP Act is expected to be introduced later this week.090527

AFGE Asks Obama to Shelve A-76

In response to the Obama administration's request for AFGE's opinion on the job competition process, the union urged the administration to immediately shut down all pending job competitions before any more damage is done. In the May 18, 12-page letter to Jeffrey Liebman, Office of Management and Budget executive associate director, AFGE detailed what went wrong with the outsourcing program championed by President Bush as a way to fulfill his 2000 presidential campaign pledge to review 425,000 federal jobs for possible outsourcing. Chief among the serious problems are the imaginary or exaggerated savings, the expensive and unfair job competition process, unenforced time limits, and the arbitrary interpretation of law to make the otherwise illegal studies stay within statutory time limits. Included in the letter were examples of bungled job competitions at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, West Point Military Academy, and Defense Logistics Agency Supply Centers in Columbus and Richmond.090527