Furlough Fallout (Akaka (D-Hawaii)says sacrifice the contractors)

The Washington Post ^ | Dec 14, 2007 | Stephen Barr

[RDTF]

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) went to the Senate floor Wednesday night to make a point: If the Pentagon faces a budget shortfall, it should suspend contracts for nonessential services rather than lay off federal employees, he said.

Akaka introduced a bill that would require the termination of nonessential service contracts before the Defense Department could furlough civil service employees "on the basis of a lack of funds."

-snip-

"If the administration wants to save money, it should start increasing oversight over contracts and drop those that are not performing," Akaka said. "There is no reason that federal workers should get a pink slip for Christmas while the Pentagon continues to spend millions on contractors."

Alan Chvotkin, senior vice president for the Professional Services Council, an industry group that represents small and large government contractors, said there probably are some nonessential contracts that can be dropped during a funding crisis or an emergency.

But, he added, "neither federal employees nor contractors should be pawns in this process."

[pas]

“If the administration wants to save money, it should start increasing oversight over contracts and drop those that are not performing,”

We should hold him to this with all areas of the government. Drop those that are not performing. Add an ammendment to his bill to do just that.

[agere_contra]

The USA would be a lot better off if half of its government/federal employees got pink slips. Including 2/3 of the CIA.

[RDTF]

instead of telliig his fellow Dims to pass the freakin thing he comes up with this birdbrain idea

[stefanbatory]

drop those that are not performing,” Akaka said. “There is no reason that federal workers should get a pink slip for Christmas

if you break it up that way, I’d be willing to bet that the DoD did the right thing...

[PubliusMM]

Yep, government is far too big. Yep, it’s still growing.

And yet this idiot doesn’t seem to realize that the current “crisis” is due to his colleagues not passing and fowarding proper funding measures for the president’s signature.

Time to stop the harping and get down to work.

[The Great RJ]

Perhaps a good start would be to cancel all civilian contracts at Pearl Harbor and Hickham Field. Watch the good Senator change his tune if that were to happen.

[American_Centurion]

If they think contractors are “not performing” wait til they see the productivity drop when there’s only federal employees around.

Absolutely NOTHING will get done, guaranteed.

[pepsionice]

I doubt that Akaka fully understands the impact or the limiting plus-up by this action. They are simply buying another month or two. If congress isn’t doing anything now...why expect 60 days to help? I’m also doubting that folks understand that non-essential services...includes the cleaner crews for the pentagon and the various services...so the enlisted guys...are going to go back and start cleaning headquarter’s buildings again....like they did in the 1970s. The grass cutting business? Same thing....privates and airman will be cutting grass on a daily basis.

Federal employees are going to fill any great void here...if they dismissed 50 percent of them today...I doubt you would notice them gone for at least two months. I watched an organization once...which had a empty slot that they wanted to promise some retiring officer (0-5) but the guy had nine months before he was at his retirement. So they simply didn’t advertise the job, and left it totally vacant. The commander kept saying...oh...we will get to it next month, and delayed the process. The intended candidate got the job eventually....but alot of folks began to figure out that they didn’t need this slot at all.