Mark Up of Senate FY07
Defense Authorization Bill
(doc)

URGENT

Message for Public: Report on Mark Up of Senate FY07 Defense Authorization Bill Senate FY07 Defense Authorization Bill Would Contract Out Depot Maintenance, Fire Fighting, and Security It is imperative that AFGE Activists fight back against several privatization provisions that are included in the Senate FY07 Defense Authorization Bill (S. 2766) that would increase privatization of work related to depot maintenance, fire fighting, and security.

In its version of the FY07 Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 5122), the House of Representatives included a weaker pro-privatization provision, as in the case of depot maintenance; none at all, as in the case of fire fighters; and a different pro-privatization provision, as in the case of security guards. Since the House and Senate will go into conference with different provisions, all of these provisions will be up for grabs. If AFGE Activists don’t lobby their Representatives and their Senators, the most pro-privatization provisions will prevail.

The conference, during which lawmakers from the House and Senate resolve differences between their two competing versions of the FY07 Defense Authorization Bill, will begin right after the Senate passes its bill. AFGE Activists have time to make a difference because the Senate may not take up the legislation until after the Memorial Day recess scheduled for May 29 through June 2.

(NOTE: I suggest that all three items be linked (so that would-be lobbyists are not overwhelmed with text.)

1. Depot Maintenance
The Pentagon wants to make permanent a loophole in the 50/50 safeguard, which ensures that no more than 50% of funding for depot maintenance can be spent on contractors. This loophole exempts from the 50/50 safeguard that work performed by contractors on the depots. Many observers believe that making the loophole permanent could eventually be the end of the public-sector side of the depots because lawmakers who represent those depots would no longer have any incentive to fight the Pentagon’s effort to starve the public-sector side of the depots of new work.

The House Armed Services Committee originally wanted to make the loophole permanent. Thanks to aggressive lobbying, particularly by Everett Kelly of AFGE’s Anniston (AL) Local and Bill Mason and David Holdsclaw of AFGE’s Crane (IN) Local, the committee decided in Section 321 to extend the loophole by just five years. However, the Senate Armed Services Committee includes a provision in Section 362 that would make the loophole permanent.

Arguments: AFGE opposes Section 362 of the Senate bill. The Congress has prevented the Pentagon from privatizing the public depots with the 50/50 safeguard, which prevents DoD from spending more than 50% of annual funding for depot-level maintenance and repair workload on contractors. The Senate bill would make permanent a temporary loophole that allows work performed by contractors on the depots to not count towards the 50/50 safeguard. The real threat to the public-sector side of the depots is not that the loophole to the 50/50 safeguard is temporary. The real threat is DoD’s lack of long-term commitment to depot workloading, the lack of predictability in workload forecasting, and the lack of stability in workload funding.

Key lawmakers: Senators Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA); Representatives John Hostettler (R-IN), Walter Jones (R-NC), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Jim Marshall (D-GA), and Dan Boren (D-OK).

2. Fire Fighting
The Pentagon wants to contract out for the performance of fire fighting functions related to combating “wildland fires such as range or forest fires and performance of wildland fire management, including the conduct of hazardous fuel treatments to reduce wildland fire risks, including prescribed fire and mechanical treatments.”

Pentagon officials succeeded in including this privatization provision in Section 363 of the Senate bill. The Senate Armed Services Committee insists that this exception “would only apply to contractor performance of fire fighting functions to respond to nonstructural fires that occur on wildlands, such as ranges and forests, located on military installations, and to conduct preventative measures such as maintenance of fire breaks and removal of underbrush. This provision would reduce or eliminate the reliance on members of the armed forces to respond to such fires, and permit needed supplementation of the civilian workforce for wildland fire fighting. Other federal agencies with land management responsibilities, such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, have the authority provided for in this provision.”

The House Armed Services Committee included no privatization provision related to fire fighting in its bill, giving AFGE Activists an opportunity to kill the Senate’s privatization provision in the upcoming House-Senate conference.

Arguments: AFGE opposes Section 363 of the Senate bill. The Pentagon is following the strategy it has used to contract out security functions—start with something small, establish a precedent and get a foot in the door, in order to eventually contract out more significant fire fighting functions. However, as the Government Accountability Office reported recently, the Department of Defense (DoD) has made a mess in contracting out security functions.

In order to avoid making another mess, Pentagon officials should not now be given discretion to contract out fire fighting functions. The quality and training of DoD’s fire fighters is unparalleled and the range of responsibilities DoD fire fighters are expected to undertake is unique. Given DoD fire fighters’ intimate knowledge of their own installations, to say nothing of their superior skills and training, it is only common sense that they be the first responders. In those rare instances when wildland fires require more manpower than is available, installations can call for assistance from neighboring fire departments, pursuant to the mutual aid agreements that all DoD fire departments have in place.

Key Lawmakers: All Representatives and Senators on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
LINKS:
http://www.house.gov/hasc/about/members.html
http://armed-services.senate.gov/members.htm

3. Security
Despite a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report in April 2006 that harshly criticized the Department of Defense (DoD) for abusing the discretion the Congress gave the Pentagon after 9/11 to contract out increased security functions, Pentagon officials are back for more. Now, the Pentagon wants to carve another exception in the prohibition against contracting out security guards, this time when it is necessary to safely relocate military munitions-related equipment and high-value items in temporary storage areas from installations to be realigned. The Senate included the Pentagon’s request in its bill at Section 364.

The House bill does not include the realignment exception. Instead, at Section 323, it extends by another year the discretion given to the Pentagon after 9/11 to contract out for increased security functions. Section 323 also requires the Pentagon to provide a report to the Congress about, among other things, the cost-effectiveness of using contractors and the performance of contractor rent-a-cops. Pentagon officials have been, in effect, blackmailing the Congress, telling lawmakers that if this post-9/11 discretion to contract out for increased security functions is not extended that it will simply let installations go without security. Pentagon officials claim that the expense of the federal hiring process prevents them from hiring civil servants to do this work when it is pointed out that contractor rent-a-cops are ultimately more expensive.

Arguments: AFGE opposes both Section 364 of the Senate bill and Section 323 of the House bill. The Army, which has contracted out more security work than any other service, has abused the discretion given by the Congress after 9/11 to partially privatize that function. GAO has reported that internal Army documents show civilian security guards are cheaper. GAO also reported that security guard contracts have been largely sole-sourced, that security guard contractors have received unjustified bonuses, and that contractor security guards are inadequately screened and supervised. The Pentagon has already been given exactly the hiring authority the Administration requested as long ago as 2004, so there should be no problem in hiring additional civilian employees to perform security functions at realigned installations as well as at those installations that have increased security needs.

Key Lawmakers: All Representatives and Senators on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
LINKS:
http://www.house.gov/hasc/about/members.html
http://armed-services.senate.gov/members.htm

Questions? Please contact John Threlkeld of AFGE’s Legislative Department at (202) 639-6413 / threlj@afge.org.
Congressional Contacts   (download word file)
Congressman Robert E. Cramer (D)
DC phone number: 202-225-4801
DC fax: 202-225-4392
E-mail: budmail@mail.house.gov
Mail:

The Honorable Robert E. (Bud) Cramer, Jr.

United States House of Representatives

2368 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515-0105

Senator Richard C. Shelby (R)
DC phone number: 202-224-5744
E-mail: senator@shelby.senate.gov
DC fax: 202-224-3416
Mail:

Senator Richard C. Shelby

110 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510

Senator Jeff Sessions (R)
DC phone number: 202-224-4124
DC fax: 202-224-3149
E-mail: senator@sessions.senate.gov
Mail:

Senator Jeff Sessions

335 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510