Unions Happy to See Fewer Contract Workers in Budget

Federal employee labor leaders are not happy about President Obama's plan to give civilians a 2 percent pay raise in 2010, while military personnel would get 2.9 percent. This is a break with the general practice of giving the two groups the same percentage increase.

But they are happy with the section of the president's budget proposal that indicates he will reign in work going to outside contractors.

It says the administration "will clarify what is inherently a governmental function and what is a commercial one; critical Government functions will not be performed by the private sector for purely ideological reasons."

While Obama may return some of those functions back to government workers, he'll probably still need to increase the number of procurement and acquisition staffers who oversee the work of contractors.

Note this line in the budget summary released yesterday: "Federal spending on contracts more than doubled from about $208 billion in 2000 to more than $423 billion in 2006—and yet the number of contract officers overseeing these contracts remained flat."

The spending plan, however, did not say the administration plans to boost the ranks of contract officers.

By Sara Goo  |  February 27, 2009; 11:06 AM ET  | Category:  Budget , Contracting , Unions
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