CSA URGES DOD APPROPRIATORS TO DROP ANTI-COMPETITION LANGUAGE

In a letter today to the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, the Contract Services Association (CSA) urged the subcommittee to repeal language that was included in the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Appropriations Act that discriminates against private contractors in favor of having commercial work performed by Federal employees. CSA also asked the appropriators to not include this language in any FY06 appropriations bills.  

“The legislators supporting this provision aren’t interested in equal health care benefits for private contractor employees; rather they want to bring competitive sourcing to a screeching halt,” said CSA President Chris Jahn. “Unfortunately, at the Department of Defense, they have succeeded.” CSA also noted that Federal employees have won 90 percent of A-76 competitions over the past several years. “This provision makes an already unbalanced process absolutely unworkable,” said Jahn.   

CSA also joined its industry colleagues in the Fair Competition Coalition in a separate letter.

Echoing the coalition’s view, Jahn said that “this Government-mandated health care provision has already stifled participation in the Department’s competitive sourcing program; contrary to the assertion of some about seeking to ‘level the playing field’ for public-private A-76 competitions, this provision actually creates a significant imbalance in favor of in-house teams. Remember that this is work that the Federal government has identified as commercial in nature.”   The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has found that the Federal government will save over $2 billion over the next several years because of competitive sourcing. Those savings could be over $5 billion annually if the process were to cover the nearly 800,000 Federal employees who are doing commercial work. Jahn said, “These savings will never happen if private contractors refuse to compete because the deck is stacked against them. At a time of large Federal deficits, it is mind-boggling that many in Congress are actually working against the interests of their taxpaying constituents.” 

“The provision penalizes private sector bidders that offer health insurance benefits to their employees. In an unprecedented intrusion into the competitive process, this provision singles out one benefit element and ignores the reality of total compensation packages commonly offered in the private sector,” Jahn wrote in the letter. “By focusing only on issues of employer contribution, the provision undermines and ignores the value and diversity of unique and innovative benefits plans available in the private sector, particularly those that are provided by the small business community.”  

Federal employee unions already have made clear their opposition to any efforts to repeal the language, and are pushing to extend it. Jahn noted that nearly two-thirds of CSA members use private union labor. “As with all competitive sourcing issues, this isn’t a matter of being anti-union. Instead, it’s all about which union the workers belong to.” 

For copies of the letters go to the CSA website at www.csa-dc.org or the Fair Competition Coalition website at www.faircompetition.org

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CSA is the nation’s oldest and largest association of service contractors representing over 200 companies that provide a wide array of services to Federal, state, and local governments. CSA members do over $40 billion in Government contracts and employ nearly 500,000 workers, with two-thirds of those employees being members of private sector employee unions. CSA members represent the diversity of the government services industry and include small businesses, 8(a)-certified companies, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned, HubZone, Native American owned firms and global multi-billion dollar corporations. CSA promotes Excellence in Contracting by offering significant professional development opportunities for government contractors and government employees, including the only program manager certification program for service contractors. For more information on CSA, go to: www.csa-dc.org.