Daniel Akaka: “Over the past 3 days, I have discussed the need to honor public servants, especially Federal workers, during Public…”

“Over the past 3 days, I have discussed the need to honor public servants, especially Federal workers, during Public Service Recognition Week. I thought back to last week when I participated in the nomination hearing for David Safavian, who has been nominated to serve as the Administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. This position serves as the gatekeeper for the Government's contracts. Much of our discussion with Mr. Safavian centered on making sure that Federal employees have the right to protest competition decisions and that agencies have adequate funds to compete to retain work in-house. Some of the concerns expressed at our hearing stemmed from what I consider to be misguided principles set forth under the President's Management Agenda, which required agencies to implement quotas that could have resulted in the contracting out of up to one-half of all Federal work. Congress, in a bipartisan manner, voiced its opposition to this government-wide approach of contracting out quotas through provisions in the Fiscal Year 2003 Transportation, Treasury, and General Government Appropriations Act. In response to this action and others, the administration dropped this approach in favor of agency-specific plans. With the recent policy reversal of the administration on contracting quotas, I had hoped that the change would have resulted in a fairer approach to the contracting out of Federal work.”