ROLL CALL:
House Passes Amendment Restricting Job Outsourcing
On July 24, by a vote of 261 to 166, the House agreed to an amendment to the Treasury-Postal Service Appropriations bill (HR 5120) prohibiting the Office of Management and Budget, or any other federal agency, from using numerical quotas, targets and goals for the outsourcing of federal jobs to private contractors. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran (D.- Va.), who has consistently come through for his constituency of government employees in northern Virginia. The President opposed passage of the Moran amendment.
Under the original terms of the appropriations bill, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had the ability to numerically determine sectors of federal employees that could be replaced with workers from the private sector if that seemed more cost effective. It required all federal agencies to "privatize 127,500 federal jobs by the end of this fiscal year, and as many as 425,000 federal jobs by the end of fiscal year 2004."
Moran opposed this provision arguing that "OMB’s one-size-fits-all arbitrary privatization quotas do not consider the unique needs of different federal agencies." Supporters of the amendment insisted that widespread cuts in every federal department "[would] harm the ability of those federal agencies to most effectively carry out their missions."
Rep. Ernest Istook (R.-Okla.) disagreed. "The amendment has nothing to do with whether things are being done in an arbitrary fashion," said Istook. "The amendment has as its goal stopping the federal government from privatizing or outsourcing, or even trying to, anything that involves work that is currently being done by federal workers."
Istook argued that privatizing various sectors of the federal work force will save many taxpayer dollars. He said that there are " 850,000 people on the federal payroll, doing work that could be done by the private sector, saving the taxpayers potentially 25 to 50% of what we are paying now." He argued that the amendment is really about "stopping the Bush Administration’s management initiative that is trying to save taxpayers significant dollars."
Liberal GOP Rep. Connie Morella, who also has a large federal employee constituency in her Maryland district, argued that the "GAO studied nine contracting-out situations, finding out that in each case tax dollars would have been saved if the work had been done by public servants. A 1998 Army study, the most comprehensive ever done, found that it was paying 46% more for each private contractor employee than for each Army public servant."
After the amendment passed, President Bush threatened a veto of the bill because of its inclusion. The bill stalled in the Senate and since October 1 the appropriations have been covered by continuing resolutions.
A "yes" vote was a vote to approve the Moran amendment that would constrict the federal government’s ability to outsource work to private companies in order to save money. A "no" vote was a vote against the amendment and reflected President Bush’s position.
REPUBLICANS FOR (52): Baker, Boehlert, Capito, Chambliss, Davis, Jo Ann, Davis, Tom, Ehrlich, Emerson, English, Ferguson, Fletcher ,Forbes, Fossella, Ganske, Gekas, Gilman, Granger, Graves, Grucci, Gutknecht, Hansen, Hart, Hayes, Hunter, Johnson (CT), Jones (NC), Kelly, King (NY), Kingston, LaHood, LaTourette, Leach, Lewis (KY), LoBiondo, McHugh, Morella, Ose, Petri, Platts, Quinn, Riley, Ros-Lehtinen, Roukema, Saxton, Shimkus, Smith (MI), Smith (NJ), Sweeney, Walsh, Weldon (PA), Weller, Wolf
DEMOCRATS FOR (208): Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen , Andrews, Baca, Baird, Baldacci, Baldwin, Barcia, Barrett, Becerra, Bentsen, Berkley, Berman, Berry, Bishop, Blagojevich, Blumenauer, Borski, Boswell, Boucher, Boyd, Brady (PA) , Brown (FL), Brown (OH), Capps, Capuano, Cardin, Carson (IN), Carson (OK), Clay, Clayton, Clement, Clyburn, Condit, Conyers, Costello, Coyne, Cramer, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (CA), Davis (FL), Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, DeLauro, Deutsch, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Dooley, Doyle, Edwards, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Evans, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Ford, Frank, Frost, Gephardt, Gonzalez, Gordon, Green (TX), Gutierrez, Hall (OH), Hall (TX), Harman, Hastings (FL), Hill, Hilliard, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Hoeffel, Holden, Holt, Honda, Hooley, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Jefferson, John, Johnson, E. B., Jones (OH), Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kennedy (RI), Kildee, Kilpatrick, Kind (WI), Kleczka, Kucinich, LaFalce, Lampson, Langevin, Lantos, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Lee, Levin, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, Lofgren, Lowey, Lucas (KY), Luther, Lynch, Maloney (CT), Maloney (NY), Markey, Mascara, Matheson, Matsui, McCarthy (MO), McCarthy (NY), McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, McIntyre, McKinney, McNulty, Meehan, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Menendez, Millender-McDonald, Miller, George, Mink, Mollohan, Moore, Moran (VA), Murtha, Nadler, Napolitano, Neal, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Owens, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor, Payne, Pelosi, Peterson (MN), Phelps, Pomeroy, Price (NC), Rahall, Rangel, Reyes, Rivers, Rodriguez, Roemer, Ross, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Rush, Sabo, Sanchez, Sandlin, Sawyer, Schakowsky, Schiff, Scott, Serrano, Sherman, Shows, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Solis, Spratt, Stark, Stenholm, Strickland, Stupak, Tanner, Tauscher, Taylor (MS), Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Thurman, Tierney, Towns, Turner, Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Velazquez, Visclosky, Waters, Watson (CA), Watt (NC), Waxman, Weiner, Wexler, Woolsey, Wu, Wynn
INDEPENDENTS FOR (1): Sanders
REPUBLICANS AGAINST (165): Aderholt, Akin, Armey, Bachus, Ballenger, Barr, Bartlett, Barton, Bass, Bereuter, Biggert, Bilirakis, Blunt, Boehner, Bonilla, Bono, Boozman, Brady (TX), Brown (SC), Bryant, Burr, Burton, Buyer, Callahan, Calvert, Camp, Cantor, Castle, Chabot, Coble, Collins, Combest, Cooksey, Crane, Crenshaw, Cubin, Culberson, Cunningham, Deal, DeLay, DeMint, Diaz-Balart, Doolittle, Dreier, Duncan, Dunn, Ehlers, Everett, Flake, Foley, Frelinghuysen, Gallegly, Gibbons, Gilchrest, Gillmor, Goodlatte, Goss, Graham, Green (WI), Greenwood, Hastings (WA), Hayworth, Hefley, Herger, Hilleary, Hobson, Hoekstra, Horn, Hostettler, Houghton, Hulshof, Hyde, Isakson, Issa, Istook, Jenkins, Johnson, Sam, Johnson (IL), Keller, Kennedy (MN), Kerns, Kirk, Knollenberg, Kolbe, Latham, Lewis (CA), Linder, Lucas (OK), Manzullo, McCrery, McInnis, McKeon, Mica, Miller, Dan, Miller, Gary, Miller, Jeff, Moran (KS), Myrick, Nethercutt, Ney, Northup, Norwood, Nussle, Osborne, Otter, Oxley, Paul, Pence, Peterson (PA), Pickering, Pitts, Pombo, Portman, Pryce (OH), Putnam, Radanovich, Ramstad, Regula, Rehberg, Reynolds, Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Rohrabacher, Royce, Ryan (WI), Ryun (KS), Schaffer, Schrock, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Shaw, Shays, Sherwood, Shuster, Simmons, Simpson, Skeen, Smith (TX), Souder, Stump, Sullivan, Sununu, Tauzin, Taylor (NC), Terry, Thomas, Thornberry, Thune, Tiahrt, Tiberi, Toomey, Upton, Vitter, Walden, Wamp, Watkins (OK), Watts (OK), Weldon (FL), Whitfield, Wicker, Wilson (NM), Wilson (SC), Young (AK), Young (FL)
INDEPENDENTS AGAINST (1): Goode
REPUBLICANS (4): Cannon, Cox, Stearns, Tancredo
DEMOCRATS (3): Bonior, Delahunt, Traficant
