Second round of outsourcing lists released

The Office of Management and Budget has released a new list of tens of thousands of federal jobs that could be opened to commercial competition.

The Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act requires agencies to review their workforces each year and come up with lists of federal jobs that could be performed by contractors. OMB reviews the lists before they are released to Congress and the public.

The latest list, released Dec. 14, covers tens of thousands of commercial jobs at the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Education and Housing and Urban Development, along with the General Services Administration and a series of smaller agencies. OMB did not offer a final tally of the number of jobs on the list and has yet to release a final list for the biggest federal organization, the Defense Department.

Earlier this year, OMB released a FAIR Act list for 26 other agencies that found that 197,000 federal jobs could be contracted out. The law however, does not require agencies to outsource any of the work.

Unions and contractors can challenge jobs left on or off the lists by agencies. Wiley Pearson, a policy analyst for the American Federation of Federal Employees labor union, said the union was reviewing the lists and would challenge all jobs it believes cannot be contracted out.