David Thomas: “I offer this as a second degree to the pending amendment of the Senator from Vermont. The amendment specifically…”

“I offer this as a second degree to the pending amendment of the Senator from Vermont. The amendment specifically restricts the Department's ability to conduct competitions under President Bush's competitive sourcing initiative, which is an integral part of his management agenda. As a strong supporter of the competitive sourcing process and consistent advocate for a smaller and more efficient government, I offer this second degree to ensure that any attempts to restrict the Department of Homeland Security in implementing its competitive sourcing efforts are limited. The positions in question, immigration information officers, have been identified by the Department as noninherently governmental functions. They have been identified by the Department in that category. They are commercial activities and can be performed in the private sector without endangering our homeland security efforts. The Department of Homeland Security is simply complying with the FAIR Act by subjecting these positions to public/private competition in order to determine if they could best be performed by the private sector or remain in house. This competition was initiated by the Department of Justice prior to the transfer to DHS. It is critical to significantly improving first line services associated with processing immigration applications and benefits.”