Spending Bill Extends Ban on A-76 Studies
December 21, 2011
The 2012 omnibus spending bill passed last week by Congress would extend a ban on agencies from competing work between contractors and federal employees.
These competitions are known as A-76 studies because they are conducted according to rules known as Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. For the past three years, Congress has prohibited A-76 studies.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who sponsored the provision in the spending bill that bans A-76 studies, has long criticized efforts to contract out government work as a waste of taxpayer dollars, bad for morale at federal agencies, and slanted against federal employees. In previous years, Mikulski unsuccessfully attempted to change the public-private competition guidance by requiring contractors to demonstrate a savings of at least 10 percent or $10 million when compared with the cost of doing work with federal employees.