Russ Feingold: “it is no secret that there have long been concerns about the competitive sourcing process at the Forest Service. I…”

“it is no secret that there have long been concerns about the competitive sourcing process at the Forest Service. I commend the chairman and ranking member for their attention to this issue in the underlying bill, which reflects those concerns by limiting the amount of funding that the Forest Service may use during fiscal year 2006 for competitive sourcing studies and related activities. The underlying bill also requires agencies funded by this bill to ``include the incremental costs directly attributable to conducting the competitive sourcing competitions'' in any reports to the Appropriations Committee about such studies and stipulates that such costs should be reported ``in accordance with full cost accounting principles.'' The fiscal year 2006 Interior appropriations bill that the other body passed last month contains similar language, and also directs the Forest Service to provide quarterly reports on its related business process reengineering efforts. The American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and if the Forest Service's competitive sourcing process is resulting in true savings, which should include a full cost accounting of all of the related savings and losses associated with this process.…”