Mr. President, I rise in support of an amendment to the DoD Authorization bill that takes important steps to enhance cost-effectiveness and accountability in government. I am pleased to have worked with Senator Kennedy to offer this amendment to improve financial transparency and cost savings in procurement policies.

This amendment would promote sensible procurement policies by requiring cost savings before decisions are made to out-source government functions. The requirement that the government show a 10 percent cost-savings prior to outsourcing has been a part of the commercial activities analysis for many, many years and is considered standard practice. I tried to codify the 10 percent cost-saving provision last year in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002. I was met, however, with opposition because the Commercial Activities Panel had not yet completed its review. I am happy to report that the Commercial Activities Panel completed its review last month and I am renewing my efforts, with my colleagues, to codify the 10 percent cost-savings provision. It is important to note that the amendment includes a provision which allows the Secretary of Defense to waive the cost-savings requirement if national security interests are compelling.

This amendment would promote public-private competition by ensuring that federal employees have the opportunity to compete for existing and new DoD work. It strengthens fairness in public-private competitions by ensuring that DoD competes an equitable number of contractor and civilian jobs. It also improves government transparency by establishing measures to track the true cost and size of the DoD contractor workforce.

The amendment offers wide discretion to the Department by creating a number of exemptions from the requirements of public-private competition. The amendment gives the Department the authority to waive public-private competition requirements when national security requires such action.

The passage of this amendment would lead to smarter and more efficient procurement policy for the federal government. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, I will continue to work to ensure DoD procurement policies are conducted in a manner that achieves the best return on the dollar. This amendment takes important steps toward this goal.