WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) today led Democratic Senate colleagues Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy (both D-Mass.), Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman (both D-Conn.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) to urge Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey to refrain from outsourcing 350 federal jobs at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center until Congress has finished its work on the 2007 Department of Defense (DOD) spending bill.

“America needs an independent civil service. Our federal employees are on the front lines every day, working hard for America. These hardworking men and women deserve to be treated fairly and, at the very least, deserve to have the same rights that contractors do,” said Senator Mikulski. “I will keep fighting to fix the competition process that is shamefully slanted in favor of private contractors.”

The Walter Reed employees are scheduled to lose their jobs as early as this month as a result of an outsourcing contract at the Medical Center. Senator Mikulski has introduced an amendment that would prohibit the Army from carrying out this contract on the grounds that the bidding process – known as an A-76 privatization review – was terribly botched and unfairly slanted against federal employees. The contracting out review process not only took more than 6 years and $7 million to complete, but would cost taxpayers another $5 million to implement. A similar amendment has been included in the House passed DOD spending bill.

Federal employees were declared the winners of this competition in September 2004, only to have the decision reversed in January 2006 over the objections of Walter Reed’s Deputy Garrison Commander. The Army’s privatization process and review were so lengthy in violation of the time allowed by law, and so costly, that the Army itself tried to cancel the privatization effort, but DOD officials refused its request.

Senator Mikulski has been a consistent fighter for federal employees. In 2005, despite a veto threat by the White House, Senator Mikulski secured a major victory for federal employees by including provisions in the Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development 2006 spending bill to help government workers compete with contractors and provide improved guidelines for a more fair competition process before jobs are contracted out. The provisions are included in the 2007 TTHUD spending bill as well, which has passed the full Senate Appropriations Committee and is pending consideration by the Senate.

Senator Mikulski is a member of the DOD Appropriations Subcommittee that will consider the spending bill in a conference committee of House and Senate members after the bill is approved by the full Senate.