Official Says Administration Was Outfoxed on Outsourcing

[kskiska]

The federal government's management guru admits the administration blew it last week.

The White House was unprepared Tuesday when Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) attached language to a House spending bill that would crimp President Bush's efforts to force federal workers to compete with the private sector for their jobs, said Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget.

"We were not aware the Van Hollen amendment was coming up -- shame on us," Johnson said in an interview Friday.

The amendment, pushed by federal employee unions, would require the OMB to toss out newly revised regulations governing competitions between federal and private workers and return to older rules that the White House says are too cumbersome. No equivalent language exists in the Senate, although some lawmakers want it.

Johnson said the administration could have defeated the Van Hollen measure "if we had had less than 30 minutes to hustle up the information." Should the provision make it through Congress, he said, "I would recommend that the president veto it."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10237-2003Sep14.html

[mhr]

1. Hooray for Van Hollen

Good Job, tricking up those sleazy Republicans!

[morningglory]

5. And did he even do this in the day time?

What a feat!

[aquart]

2. Oh, that's so sweet.

Almost as much time to read the Van Hollen amendment as Congress was given to read the Patriot Act.

They have no sense of irony over there, do they?

[baby_bear]

4. Patriot Act yes, but...

We all know that the Dems should have refused to have voted on the damn thing because they hadn't had a chance to read it.

The fact that so many Dems voted for it is nothing but shameful.

I am thrilled the OMB got caught off guard here, but let's face it, they don't vote on this stuff. They influence it, to be sure. And I personally have a lot at stake here (being a fed whose job OMB has targeted for outsourcing).

As far as I am concerned, any Dem who voted for Patriot needs to explain why - and whether they read it.

s_m

[Nottingham]

3. Whoo Hoo Van Hollen! Awesome! If Bush Veto's this! He is TOAST!

To Veto this would be so UNAMERICAN and So Not NATIONAL SECURITY

Van Hollen RULES! :bounce:

I want to see Bush Sweat over this!

[jburton]

6. Van Hollen (D-Md.)

Kicks ass --was one of the few who refused to adopt the "I love Bush" strategy in 2002, and one of the few that won in 2002.

Coincidence?

[baby_bear]

7. Thanks for posting this, kskiska

It's really good to know there are some serious House members who respect professional, career federal workers. Johnson is disingenuous when he says "many federal white-collar workers are needlessly worried..."

Excuse me, but I know that there are many "white-collar" jobs that OMB would love to see given over to contractors, including my own..


s_m

[Frances]

8. This DUer passed out fliers for Van Hollen

and I voted for him just before I moved from Maryland. I am so proud of him.