Mikulski, Senate Colleagues Urge OMB Director to Protect Mission-Critical Federal Jobs From Wasteful and Unfair Guidelines
Press Release
U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today released a letter signed by 10 of her Senate colleagues urging Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag to help bring back and protect mission-critical jobs at federal agencies by creating a fair definition for "inherently governmental."
"Federal employees are on the front lines every single day protecting our borders, our food and our health," Senator Mikulski said. "They shouldn't have to worry about protecting their jobs. I fought for federal employees and the integrity of the civil service when the Bush administration was contracting-out essential government services. We've stopped new outsourcing. We need this new definition to protect mission-critical jobs and bring those jobs that have been wrongly out-sourced back in-house. Certain federal jobs -- like reviewing contracts, making budgets and writing policies -- simply are too important to agencies' missions to ever be contracted-out."
"Federal employees are the backbone of our government, providing vital services to millions of Americans every day," Senator Cardin said. "In the past there have been efforts to undermine their mission and to outsource their jobs. It's important that federal jobs be protected and I join my colleagues in urging the Administration to identify federal functions that should never be outsourced."
In 2009, after years of wasteful and even fraudulent contracting-out of federal jobs and confusion at agencies about which jobs to keep within the civil service, Congress passed a law requiring OMB to redefine "inherently governmental" to prevent irrational outsourcing of federal jobs.
In their letter, the Senators now recommend a definition of "inherently government" that protects against undermining the mission of agencies and wasting taxpayer dollars.
In addition to Senator Mikulski, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Robert P. Casey (D-Pa.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) signed the letter.
The letter to OMB Director Orszag can be found at: http://mikulski.senate.gov/_pdfs/Press/MikulskiLetterToOrszag.pdf.
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