WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today spoke on the Senate floor on his legislation to target waste and inefficiency in outsourcing Department of Defense (DoD) work to contractors. The amendment to the DoD Authorization bill makes reforms to a process that has been shown to skew decisions in favor of hiring defense contractors rather than government employees.
“This amendment will promote fiscal responsibility and save money for taxpayers while ensuring that those who have the experience, expertise and skill are able to carry out their tasks in the Department of Defense,” said Senator Casey. “We can’t continue to spend money inefficiently and without full accountability, especially when jobs are at stake.”
Senator Casey’s legislation is cosponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown, Chuck Schumer, Barbara Mikulski, Ted Kennedy, Patty Murray, Kirsten Gillibrand and Russ Feingold.
The Casey amendment would reform the A-76 process at DoD and bring contracting in-line with the standards used in other areas of government. Similar language passed the House as part of its version of the Defense Authorization.
The General Accountability Office (GAO) has documented flaws in the A-76 process that gives an upper-hand to private contractors when determinations are being made on whether it is more advantageous to use contractors or federal workers. The current system does not take into account all costs incurred by contractors and hinders real competition.
The A-76 process of competitive sourcing is a government-wide initiative that subjects commercial activities performed by federal government employees to public-private competition. The primary source of the policy and procedures involving competitive sourcing has been the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76.
Increasingly it has been found that work that should have been performed by federal employees because of its inherently governmental nature has been given to contractors. These practices come at a considerable cost to the taxpayer.
Contractors acquire and retain work often without competing against other contractors and even more infrequently against federal employees, increasing costs to taxpayers. Federal employees are not even given a chance to compete. The A-76 process has been criticized by the DoD Inspector General and Government Accountability Office because of poor systems to track costs and savings, cost exclusion in order to maximize savings claims, instances costs exceeding estimated savings and a troublingly disproportionate adverse impact on African-American employees.
Specifically, the amendment would:
• Establish a DoD-specific suspension of one-year on new A-76 studies.
• Close a loophole allowing certain DoD functions performed by federal employees to be given to contractors without any determination that such conversions are actually in the interest of taxpayers.
• Establish a 24-month time limit for how long A-76 studies can last—from the beginning of preliminary planning to the final award decision.
• Direct DoD to suspend pending A-76 studies and determine, based on certain criteria, whether their completion is justifiable.
• Require agencies to provide briefings to affected federal employees about contracting out decisions.
• Make technical corrections to clarify GAO’s jurisdiction.
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