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.

FMI: www.faa.gov