Contracting Out

Any effort to contract out government jobs without regard to the efficiency or effectiveness of the private firms that would be hired  is irresponsible and a bad use of taxpayer dollars. I do not believe we should be privatizing government work without giving public sector employees a fair chance to defend their jobs, nor should we show a preference to contract employees over our dedicated public workforce.

Contracting out can pose real problems for workers and for our economy and can lead to instability in government services if the companies that get hired go bankrupt or are otherwise unable to provide the services promised. This situation is bad for workers and for our economy, especially when good public sector jobs – jobs with benefits – are replaced with low-paying jobs with no benefits.

That  is why I proud to be an original co-sponsor of the Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act, which would increase competition in contracting, prohibit the contracting of inherent government functions; tighten ethics laws and regulations relating to contracting, prevent fraud in contracting, prevent contracts with a pattern of overcharging or legal violations from receiving future contracts, and eliminate war profiteering. These are reasonable and fair reforms that would restore integrity to our contracting process and I will continue to work hard to secure their passage in the 110th Congress.