Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2012

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Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Chairman, according to recent media reports, the Department of Homeland Security is the top civilian agency conducting insourcing, which is converting private contractor services to government employees.

My amendment would strike section 514 of this legislation which, as drafted, would prevent any funds in this bill from being used to conduct public-private competitions or to direct A-76 conversions for any program, project, or activity within the Department of Homeland Security.

The A-76 process has been in existence since 1966. The original intent was to require the government to use private-sector services when obtaining goods or services and assist with services from within the government. I believe that the A-76 produces quality competition that leads to great service and a more cost-efficient result for the taxpayer. The bottom line, Madam Chairman, is that the government does not need to perform all the goods and services that might be in the Yellow Pages; that is for the private sector to do.

A-76 cost competitions between the public and private sector brings the best value to the taxpayer. According to Americans for Tax Reform, the average cost of each new Federal employee for salary, benefits, and pensions totals $4.27 million. Without competition, government-run monopolies of commercial activities duplicate and price out the private sector, resulting in inefficient expenditures of taxpayer money.

The Heritage Foundation has reported that subjecting Federal employee positions which are commercial in nature to a public-private cost comparison generates on average a 30 percent cost savings regardless of which sector wins the competition. Even a recent Office of Management and Budget study states that the act of public-private competition generates cost savings from 10 to 40 percent on average.

During this time of stretched budgets and bloated Federal spending, Congress should do all that it can do to find taxpayer savings that reduce the cost of services provided by the Federal Government. I urge all of my colleagues to support this commonsense, taxpayer-first amendment and to ensure cost-saving competition is available through the Department of Homeland Security.

Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Chairman, Mr. Sessions' amendment frankly has been known to us only a short period of time, and we are not certain that all Members who might have an interest in this have been alerted. I wonder if the gentleman would yield for a question or two on this.

Mr. Sessions, would you be willing to yield?

Mr. SESSIONS. I will yield to the gentleman.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. My recollection is that this amendment was placed in the bill some years ago when there was an active dispute about contracting out some services at CIS.

Could you tell us, what precipitates your trying to remove this language now? As I understand it, your amendment would not require the contracting out, but it would simply remove the prohibition. Is that right?

Mr. SESSIONS. That is correct. The gentleman is correct. Today it is prohibited that this may be allowed in favor of the government hiring services through a Federal Government employee. What drives me to once again come on the floor as I have done for 15 years is that I believe that there are inherently governmental functions that a government employee must perform. However, when there is something like changing oil for a fleet of trucks, mowing grass, coming in and cleaning a building, performing functions that can be done more efficiently--perhaps it's with computers, perhaps it's with data systems, perhaps it's professional services that can be done better, rather than flying employees in from the Federal Government, but when they can be more cost effective, then a process is gone through. This process is called the A-76 process, and it's where the local management would look at the functions up to and including loaded costs for what it takes
to perform the duties that might be done. And generally speaking, there is a 30 percent cheaper value or cost to the government when it's done by an outside contractor as opposed to a Federal Government employee.

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