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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today expressed her disappointment and concern at removal by a House-Senate Conference Committee from 2005 funding legislation of “an important common sense provision” that would help provide a more fair process for deciding whether to contract out federal jobs.
“It is certainly disappointing that the conference committee chose to ignore the clear—and growing—bipartisan will of Congress to develop a contracting out process that is fair to federal workers and a better deal for taxpayers,” said National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley. She said NTEU would continue its fight against runaway federal contracting which has targeted the jobs of thousands of federal employees.
The contracting out language stripped from the omnibus funding bill approved Saturday was strongly supported by NTEU, and had been adopted with strong bipartisan support by both the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The provision would have impacted federal contracting out processes by prohibiting the use of funds to implement a massive, contractor-friendly rewrite in May 2003 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the rules covering federal contracting. The amendment was introduced in the House by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and in the Senate by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).
"The fact that the contracting out language became a pivotal issue in the passage of this bill speaks volumes about how far we have come in winning congressional support on behalf of a level playing field for federal employees and a better deal for American taxpayers," President Kelley said. The conference committee ultimately stripped the language following a White House threat to veto the omnibus bill if the provision remained.
NTEU has been leading the fight against federal contracting, emphasizing the costs to taxpayers and the serious dangers to federal agencies of the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise when work is shifted wholesale to the private sector.
As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.