Rick Allen: “I am rising with him, and hopefully with a majority of our colleagues, in opposition to Senator Mikulski's amendment…”

“I am rising with him, and hopefully with a majority of our colleagues, in opposition to Senator Mikulski's amendment which would prohibit the administration from applying and enforcing efforts to get the private sector involved where it is appropriate in various governmental services. This amendment would weaken the executive branch's ability to manage the Federal Government. It would impede improvement of many of the Government's significant commercial activities and prevent the outsourcing of inherently nongovernmental jobs to the private sector. It really would be one of anti-efficiency. I think the Bush management plan has a relatively modest goal of injecting some competition to the commercial activities performed by the Government. I believe we ought to be encouraging, not impeding, public-private competition reviews. Clearly, the President ought to have the flexibility to best execute governmental functions and to enforce important management objectives and goals, specifically in the area of competitive sourcing.”