Barbara Mikulski: “my amendment will prevent the arbitrary privatization of almost a million Federal workers. It prevents agencies from…”

“my amendment will prevent the arbitrary privatization of almost a million Federal workers. It prevents agencies from establishing or applying or enforcing any numerical goal, target, or quota for the contracting out of Federal jobs either by public-private competitions or by directly converting jobs to the private sector. I want to be very clear, I am not against privatization, but I believe the privatization should be based on thoughtful criteria, not arbitrary numerical quotas. This administration has stated, in another arena, they are absolutely against quotas. So am I. But they seem to use quotas when it is convenient. I do not understand why OMB wants to use quotas to get rid of Federal employees. Let's not use quotas at all, whether it is to get into college or to get rid of Federal workers. Right now, many people are thinking about how to reform the Federal workforce. Excellent thinking. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker and Senator Voinovich--leaders in this area--have put a lot of work into this issue. What they are saying, loud and clear, is, we need to be able to recruit the best, we need to be able to retain the best, we need to be able to maintain the integrity of the civil service system and make sure it never lapses into cronyism or political patronage. I am for their approach.”