(Washington, D.C.)  At a press conference earlier today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) reiterated its support for the Bush Administration’s competitive sourcing initiative, which opens government workers to competition with the private sector in order to obtain the best services at the lowest cost.  

“The federal government spends billions of dollars a year on commercial services that could easily be done by the private sector.  Competition for these services will ensure that taxpayers receive the most efficient performances possible,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Competition leads to improved production and higher customer satisfaction. In an age of soaring deficits and public frustration with government services, public-private competition is essential.”      

As part of President Bush’s Management Agenda reforms, competitive sourcing would provide open and fair competition between the private sector and government employees performing commercial work.  It is the administration’s goal to ensure accountability, efficiency, and budget savings; however, there have been several congressional attempts to defeat the use of competitive sourcing in the federal government.  Proposals have been offered in the Agriculture, Interior, and Transportation and Treasury appropriations bills, and the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that would prohibit competitive sourcing.

“The President’s common sense proposals would follow private sector management practices, such as linking budgets with performance targets and improving agency performance with strategic plans,” Schatz continued.  “Any attempt to block competitive sourcing would illustrate Congress’s penchant for fiscal mismanagement, already evident by their out-of-control spending habits.”

An inventory of government services conducted during the Clinton administration identified more than 850,000 of the 1.8 million jobs in the federal government as commercial in nature.  Numerous studies demonstrate that public-private competition improves service delivery and decreases costs to taxpayers by anywhere from 10-40 percent on average.  Earlier this year, OMB opened up bidding for the printing of the fiscal 2004 budget.  For the past 81 years, the Government Printing Office had always done that work.  As it turns out, they won the bid this year with an offer of $387,000, a savings of 24 percent from their own price in the previous year.

“Just as American families need to find ways to save money during a struggling economy, so does the federal government,” Schatz concluded.  “Facing a deficit of $480 billion, this is a smart way for the government to save taxpayers’ money and still provide the best services.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.