FYI:

>NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 9, #33; 1 August 2003)
>by Bruce Craig (editor) <[log in to unmask]> with Paul Beede
>(contributing editor)
>National Coalition for History (NCH)
>*****************
>  CONGRESS INVESTIGATES NPS OUTSOURCING PLANS
>On 24 July 2003, the National Parks Subcommittee of the Senate Committee
>on Energy and National Resources held a hearing to gather information on
>current competitive sourcing initiatives, which includes long-range plans
>to outsource archeologist, historian, archivist, and other professional
>staff positions.  The subcommittee heard from two administration witnesses
>-- Fran Mainella, Director of the National Park Service, and Angela B.
>Styles of the Office of Management and Budget.  Styles is the OMB official
>in charge of the competitive sourcing program, an initiative by the Bush
>administration to mandate government workers to compete for their jobs
>with private-sector employees.
>
>Mainella's testimony focused on dispelling the "misunderstandings"
>surrounding the competitive sourcing plans.  She attempted to reassure
>bureau employees that their jobs were not already lost, and that many if
>not most jobs would remain in the hands of Park Service governmental
>workers.  Angela Styles reminded the subcommittee that jobs that are
>"inherently governmental" would not be affected, and the out-sourcing
>would focus on commercial jobs only.  Later that same day, in front of
>another panel, Styles also announced that the Bush administration's
>competitive sourcing initiative would no longer require federal agencies
>to meet government-wide quotas.
>
>Also testifying at the hearing in support of the competitive sourcing
>program were Sam Kleinman of CNA Corporation, and Geoffrey Segal, Director
>of Privatization and Government Reform Policy of the Reason Foundation, a
>Los Angeles based conservative libertarian think tank.  Testimony of both
>witnesses focused on the monetary benefits of outsourcing program and
>included description of successful outsourcing efforts within the
>Department of Defense and in the Canadian provincial park system. Segal
>predicted that the outsourcing program would save the NPS about $6.6
>million in the first year, and if handled properly, it could save as much
>as  31 percent of the baseline cost of government operations.
>
>Other witnesses including Scott McElveen, speaking on behalf of the
>Association of National Park Rangers, and Bill Wade, a former
>superintendent of Shenandoah National Park who spoke on behalf of the
>Coalition of Concerned NPS Retirees and the Campaign to Protect America's
>Lands, took the administration and libertarian think-tank witnesses to
>task.  "The National Park Service is different [from other federal
>agencies]," Wade said.  "Many, if not most, of the positions in the NPS
>are 'multi-disciplinary' in nature."  He explained why outsourcing is an
>assault on the integrity and mission of the NPS and that it is also having
>a detrimental effect on morale.  If left unchecked, Wade continued, the
>program "will reduce a once proud highly productive workforce into a
>run-of-the-mill government bureaucracy."
>
>***********************************************************
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