CSA Applauds House Action on Services Acquisition Reform

The Contract Services Association today applauded the quick action by the House Government Reform Committee on several service acquisition reform issues, including passage of a General Services Administration reform bill. “Chairman Davis should be commended for his continued commitment to streamline and improve Government acquisition processes,” said Chris Jahn, President of the Contract Services Association.

Representative Tom Davis, Chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, recently re-introduced his “Acquisition System Improvement Act” (ASIA). This bill (H.R. 2067) follows-on the 2003 Services Acquisition Reform Act, which was included in the FY 2004 National Defense Authorization Act – and was a top priority for CSA.

ASIA includes several significant provisions aimed at ensuring that the Government acquisition community has the tools necessary to obtain cost-effective, quality services from the private sector. The bill would give Federal agencies authority to award “share-in-savings” contracts. This program would be similar to the already successful “energy savings performance contracting” program. In addition, the bill would authorize a government-industry exchange program that permits the exchange of acquisition professionals between the Federal government and the private sector. “This program is aimed at improving the skills of the acquisition community. An experienced workforce is critical to ensuring high performance,” noted Jahn.

Jahn also applauded the quick, bipartisan passage of another Davis bill, the “General Services Administration Modernization” (H.R. 2066). CSA is part of a multi-association coalition, “One GSA Coalition,” which has been formed to provide coordinate industry input on Congress’s and the Administration’s efforts to reorganize GSA.

To supplement these efforts, Jahn noted that CSA is leading a service industry contracting task force that has been conducting a year-long review of service contracting; the report on findings and recommendations is expected to be released shortly.

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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 perform over $40 billion in Government contracts and employ nearly 500,000 workers, with two-thirds of CSA companies using private sector union labor.  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.