US Govt. Set To Make Wx Briefings Commercial Ventures
New
rules adopted by Washington last week mean about 850,000 federal
jobs will soon be in the hands of private contractors - among them,
weather briefings for private pilots. While the Bush administration
says the rule changes increase competition and lower costs,
Democrats, labor unions and some pilots are worried the move is
nothing more than a union-busting tactic that will lead to a return
of political favoritism.
Better, Faster, Cheaper?
The Bush administration says, of the 1.8 million federal jobs,
about half duplicate work done in the private sector. Mr. Bush's
idea: open up those work areas to private competition. At least 15
percent of such jobs are set to be bid by the end of the fiscal
year.
Mitch Daniels, the outgoing director of the
President's Office of Management and Budget (shown with Pres. Bush,
right), said last Thursday that the new regulations "will open much
wider the doors to those businesses and their workers who can seek
to provide to the American taxpayer a better value at a better
price. We are indifferent as to who wins the competition. It need
not result in any changes in federal employment. We'll just have to
see what a more wide-open system brings."
But even before the new regulations kick in, the government's
use of private contractors is already under fire. For instance,
NASA employs thousands of non-government contractors, most notably
from the Boeing Company. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board,
reviewing events that led to the Feb. 1 disintegration of the space
shuttle, is examining the relationships between NASA and its
contractors to see if they contributed to the tragedy.
FAA Changes
At the FAA, 2700 government jobs could be on the
line as flight service duties go up for bid. The vast majority of
those jobs in question involve weather briefings currently
conducted by FAA employees.
The rule changes are "merely an act to give lucrative government
work to contractors without any accountability to the taxpayer,"
said Bobby L. Harnage, president of the American Federation of
Government Employees.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) doesn't like the government to lose any
power, anywhere. He said, "Reasonable steps to improve the
efficiency of federal agencies makes sense, but blanket
privatization does not. We can't afford to hand over key federal
responsibilities to companies with the best lobbyists or the lowest
bids." He did not elaborate on what "reasonable" meant to him.