At the urging of AFGE, House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to do an analysis on the cost of the contractor workforce and potential savings from reducing the use of expensive contractors. The CBO was asked to provide the analysis by the end of January 2015 so that Congress can use it to discuss the 2016 budget.
Rep. Van Hollen also expressed concerns over an option the CBO included in a recent deficit reduction report. The Maryland lawmaker said the option to cut the federal workforce by 10% doesn’t include an analysis on how the cut would affect the services provided to the American people. The option also targets only federal employees for cuts and excludes the contracted workforce.
“I ask that when future reports include options to reduce the number of federal employees that they also consider options to achieve savings in the contracted workforce. This would allow Congress to consider tradeoffs between all aspects of government operations,” Rep. Van Hollen said in a Dec. 5 letter to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf.
Rep. Van Hollen’s request to the CBO came after AFGE Legislative and Political Department Director Beth Moten raised the issue of the one-sided options in the recent CBO report. AFGE is encouraged that Rep. Van Hollen continues to fight to protect fairness on behalf of federal employees.