CLEAN UP Act Would Rein in Outsourcing; Republican Proposals Would Expand It

The ongoing debate between Congressional Democrats and Republicans is spilling over into whether or not to out-source government functions to the private sector. Rep. John Sarbanes, with 50 co-sponsors, introduced the Correction of Long-Standing Errors in Agencies’ Unsustainable Procurements (CLEAN UP) Act that generated federal union approval and Professional Services Council skepticism. The bill’s author states the outsourcing “shrinking government at all costs” approach over the last decade has contributed to poor quality government services. The Act includes the following features: (1) suspend the OMB A-76 Circular public-private competition process until implementation of certain reforms (2) ensure federal employees perform “inherently governmental functions and mission-essential functions” and (3) in-source current functions performed by contractors.

The Freedom from Government Competition Act, introduced by Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn) and Sen. John Thude (R-SD) would require, with certain exceptions, that each federal agency obtain all goods and services by procurement from private sources. The authors state the bill is intended to address the “unfair government competition with the private sector” where the bill would apply a “Yellow Pages” test to reviewing commercial activities in the federal government – the federal government provides many services that can be found simply by opening the yellow pages, saving the government $20-25 Billion annually. In spite of the Federal Acquisition Inventory Act requirements to identify non-inherently government activities, they state less than 10 percent of the 850,000 positions in the federal government deemed commercial in nature have been reviewed. The bill does not mandate privatization, preserving those activities only the government should do, while proposing competition for those functions that are commercial. The bill outlines methods of procuring goods and services from the private sector, including current OMB A-76 public-private competitions.

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