By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 26, 2003; Page A23
Although House and Senate negotiators agreed yesterday to a 4.1 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees, workers may have to wait several weeks into the new year to see the increase in their paychecks.
Meanwhile, the White House this week succeeded in weakening provisions, previously agreed to by congressional negotiators, that would have assisted federal employees who are being forced to compete with private contractors for their jobs. Among other changes, Office of Management and Budget officials were able to strip out language that would have granted employees the right to appeal to the General Accounting Office if they lose job competitions under President Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative.
The sourcing changes irked federal employee unions and lawmakers of both parties.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), said the changes make an already troubled job-competition process even worse. "I think you've got the worst of all worlds," said Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who pushed for the worker-friendly language, complained that the White House had subverted the will of Congress. "Behind closed doors, OMB has rewritten the language," she said. "This is unfair to federal employees and unfair to the democratic process."
OMB spokesman Chad Kolton said yesterday that the administration appreciated "that Congress recognized the importance of this component of the president's management agenda."
The pay and competitive sourcing provisions were part of a new House-Senate agreement on a $390 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2004 that the House is expected to pass next month. But the Senate might not take up the bill until January, after Congress returns from its year-end recess.
In that case, Bush's proposed 2 percent pay raise would take effect Jan. 1 and continue until Congress passes the higher increase, which would be awarded to workers retroactively. A similar situation arose earlier this year.
As part of his budget plan, Bush had sought a 2 percent raise for civilian employees and a 4.1 percent increase to members of the military. Lawmakers, however, argued that Congress should uphold the tradition of "pay parity" and grant equivalent increases in base pay to the military and the civil service.
"On a pretty bipartisan effort, we said, no, that's not going to fly," House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said of Bush's two-tier pay plan.
On competitive sourcing, House and Senate negotiators agreed this month to include several worker-friendly provisions in the spending bill for the Transportation and Treasury departments. But, at the last minute, the OMB, which oversees the initiative, insisted on substantial changes.
Gone were appeals rights for workers who lose competitions to contractors. Also stripped out was a requirement that contractors show significant savings -- at least 10 percent or $10 million -- in competitions involving more than 10 jobs. A provision was kept that would guarantee employees the right to restructure their work units as "most efficient organizations" -- with fewer workers or better technology -- when competing against contractors, but it was limited to agencies funded by the Transportation and Treasury bill.
Negotiators retained provisions mandating agencies to report to Congress on the progress, costs and savings under the initiative, and requiring that any federal work awarded to private contractors be done in the United States rather than by overseas workers.
Davis criticized the offshore provision, saying it sets a bad policy precedent that ignores the goal of finding the best deal for taxpayers. He also said it was unfair that workers do not enjoy the same protest rights that private contractors do.
And he said the White House dropped the ball on raising objections earlier to the bill.
"The White House was AWOL," Davis said, noting that the OMB is short-staffed on competitive sourcing. "It kind of fell through the cracks with everything else."
An OMB official said the agency has "been very engaged on this issue throughout the appropriations process."
House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. "Bill" Young (R-Fla.) said lawmakers didn't understand the White House's late objection to competitive sourcing provisions in the Transportation and Treasury bill. "Every time something new came up it threw us further behind," Young said yesterday.
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the administration's "backroom bullying" illustrates that the White House wants to reward private contractors for their support of Bush. "Why else would OMB strong-arm lawmakers to delete provisions that require contractors to at least promise to save money for taxpayers before taking work away from federal employees?" he said.
Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, a contractor group that raised concerns about many of the worker-friendly provisions, praised the last-minute changes as necessary. "Congress came very close to taking some steps that would have had enormous negative ramifications," he said. "Had they gone ahead with what was in the bill, it would have likely killed competitive sourcing."