crossposted from unbossed
This is an update on some events related to the situation at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. There may not be daily news reports, but that does not mean nothing is being done.
Take the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, now moving through the House, a bill that seeks to prevent the problems caused by privatization.
As a result of the shocking news about how our veterans were being cared for, we now have H.R. 1538, the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, moving quickly through congress. It received a favorable committee vote of 50-0 to report the bill to the House. An amazing result that shows how quickly things have changed in DC.
The bill is sponsored by House Armed Services Committee Chairman and is intended "to improve the management of medical care, personnel actions, and quality of life issues for members of the Armed Forces who are receiving medical care in an outpatient status, and for other purposes."
Full text of the bill may be found here.
It's congressional findings state that the process of privatizing caused the problems at WRAMC by undermining its ability to perform its mission and by leading to the departure of highly skilled administrative and maintenance workers:
(1) The conduct of public-private competitions for the performance of Department of Defense functions, based on Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, can lead to dramatic reductions in the workforce, undermining an agency’s ability to perform its mission.
(2) The Army Garrison commander at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center has stated that the extended A-76 competition process contributed to the departure of highly skilled administrative and maintenance personnel, which led to the problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In addition, the most interesting features include a one-year moratorium on privatization competitions and detailed reports on competitions, including the cost, estimated savings and actual savings achieved.
Here are the critical passages:
TITLE III—GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 301. MORATORIUM ON CONVERSION TO CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FUNCTIONS AT MILITARY MEDICAL FACILITIES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) The conduct of public-private competitions for the performance of Department of Defense functions, based on Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, can lead to dramatic reductions in the workforce, undermining an agency’s ability to perform its mission.
(2) The Army Garrison commander at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center has stated that the extended A-76 competition process contributed to the departure of highly skilled administrative and maintenance personnel, which led to the problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(b) MORATORIUM.—During the one-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, no study or competition may be begun or announced pursuant to section 2461 of title 10, United States Code, or otherwise pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76
relating to the possible conversion to performance by a contractor of any Department of Defense function carried out at a military medical facility .
(c) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives a report on the public-private competitions being conducted for Department of Defense functions carried out at military medical facilities as of the date of the enactment of this Act by each military department and defense agency. Such report shall include—
(1) for each such competition—
(A) the cost of conducting the public-private competition;
(B) the number of military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of Defense affected;
(C) the estimated savings identified and the savings actually achieved;
(D) an evaluation whether the anticipated and budgeted savings can be achieved through a public-private competition; and
(E) the effect of converting the performance of the function to performance by a contractor on
the quality of the performance of the function;
(2) a description of any public-private competition the Secretary would conduct if the moratorium under subsection (b) were not in effect; and
(3) an assessment of whether any method of business reform or reengineering other than a public-private competition could, if implemented in the future, achieve any anticipated or budgeted savings.
Proposed amendments may be found here. Quite a number of them as you will see.
New AFGE press release on the WWAA here:
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE PUTS HALT TO PRIVATIZATION AT MILITARY HOSPITALS
(Washington)— The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, today lauded the House Armed Services Committee for including a provision in the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act (H.R. 1538) that would impose a moratorium on new privatization reviews in Department of Defense (DoD) military hospitals.
AFGE saluted the bipartisan leadership of House Armed Services Committee Chair Ike Skelton, Ranking Member Duncan Hunter, Readiness Subcommittee Chair Solomon Ortiz, Ranking Member Jo Ann Davis, Military Personnel Subcommittee Chair Vic Snyder, and Ranking Member John McHugh for their work on the legislation, which was marked up yesterday.
"The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) obsession with privatizing federal employees cannot be allowed to undermine the health of military personnel," said John Gage, national president of AFGE, which represents workers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "The Walter Reed privatization fiasco could have been prevented."
According to AFGE, OMB failed to enforce its deadline on the Army to finish or abandon the interminable privatization study by September 30, 2004. However, it was OMB’s numerical privatization quotas that made the Walter Reed privatization fiasco inevitable—forcing agencies to review for privatization certain numbers of employees every fiscal year—or else risk not getting sufficient funding in next year’s budget. Indeed, Army officials have been told that their service is red (i.e., the lowest possible grade) on the President’s Management Agenda and that they must review more than 45,000 jobs for privatization by the end of FY09.
"Installations that want to delay or cancel an OMB Circular A-76 privatization review must provide comparable numbers of jobs to review for privatization instead," added Gage. "Rather than lose credit for reviewing the 300 jobs at Walter Reed for privatization, the Army felt compelled to finish the privatization review, even if it was illegal, wasteful, biased, and botched.
"The moratorium on new privatization reviews in DoD military hospitals is a sincere, bipartisan effort to address some of the problems caused by OMB’s now infamous ‘competitive sourcing’ policy. In the months ahead, the Congress will undoubtedly take other opportunities to make additional, much-needed reforms," said Gage.
For more detailed responses by AFGE, check here.
You can find a recent summary of events and links to WARMC-related posts on unbossed and an AFGE press release on events at WARMC here. There were many reports here, and you can find them via a search.
Remember IAP?
You can find its reaction to WRAMC here.