May 27, 2002

Greeting,

Of all the issues referred to in mailings from your union, none are more important than contracting out. While no one can dispute the importance of pay, safety, benefits, and the many other issues NTEU fights for, contracting out goes to your very job.

Simply put, it is the practice of performing governmental services by hiring outside, private firms. Work that was formerly done by a government employee (such as you) is now done by a private firm.

The OCC has experimented with having CPA firms perform bank examinations. While he hasn’t officially addressed it, the rumor mill says that Chairman Powell is intrigued with the idea.

The Bush administration has directed every department and agency to open up to the private sector in fiscal year 2002 the work of 5% of the federal jobs considered "commercial in nature" (a gloriously undefined phrase). This arbitrary quota is to go up year-by-year, eventually reaching 50%. That’s 425,000 jobs nationwide.

Agencies and department are not required to hold public-private competitions before privatizing these jobs.

There is no government-wide system to track the work of contractors. They are not held to the standards of accountability or transparency of federal employees. Despite the contractor debacles at the IRS (40,000 tax returns shredded by a contractor in Pittsburgh) and the INS (a contractor sent visas to two September 11 highjackers), the administration is demanding contracting out without holding contractors responsible for their work.

The Truthfulness, Responsibility, and Accountability in Contracting (TRAC) Act has bipartisan support (190 sponsors in the House of Representatives and 19 sponsors in the Senate). TRAC addresses the problems raised above. Considerable information about TRAC, including President Kelley’s congressional testimony, can be found at www.nteu.org under "legislation."