DoD Union Applauds House Vote to Protect Civilian Jobs from Outsourcing

Amendment to Defense appropriations bill retains department-wide ban on conducting privatization studies

News provided by

American Federation of Government Employees

Jun 16, 2016, 01:42 ET

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Federation of Government Employees is praising the U.S. House of Representatives for including a bipartisan measure in next year's Department of Defense appropriations bill that will protect civilian jobs from being outsourced.

The American Federation of Government Employees is praising the U.S. House of Representatives for including a bipartisan measure in next year's Department of Defense appropriations bill that will protect civilian jobs from being outsourced. "Civilian employees are the backbone of our military and no effort to outsource their jobs should move forward until DoD can show it has an unbiased process in place for conducting privatization studies," AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said. AFGE represents 270,000 DoD civilians nationwide and overseas.

"The Armed Forces rely on civilian employees for a range of services that are vital to military readiness, from training warfighters and maintaining equipment to treating the wounded and sustaining facilities," AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said. "The House action ensures that these jobs cannot be outsourced, since the current privatization process is biased against federal workers."

The House on June 15 included a provision in the fiscal 2017 DoD Appropriations Bill that bans conducting public-private contracting studies under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76.

The provision was added as a bipartisan amendment offered by Reps. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Don Beyer of Virginia, and Rob Bishop of Utah. The House approved the amendment by voice vote.

"A ban has been in place since fiscal 2010 because of systemic problems with the contracting out process and DoD's failure to produce a full and meaningful inventory of its contractor workforce," Cox said. "Some lawmakers have proposed lifting this ban, even though these well-documented problems remain in place. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the four members of Congress who pushed to include a DoD-wide ban in the Defense appropriations bill."

The Senate dropped the moratorium from its version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and failed to consider a bipartisan amendment that would have restored the ban. This is the first time a DoD-wide ban has been included in the Defense appropriations bill.

"Civilian employees are the backbone of our military and no effort to outsource their jobs should move forward until DoD can show it has an unbiased process in place for conducting privatization studies," Cox said.

AFGE represents more than 270,000 DoD civilian employees nationwide and overseas.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees