Mike Causey

Champions of Feds Go Private

Key members of Congress have vowed to block any additional privatization of government operations, except, as Senior Correspondent Mike Causey points out, when ...

Federal News Network Staff

June 10, 2008 4:00 am

3 min read

Should career federal employees collect taxes, handle Social Security claims, handle maintenance chores, run air traffic operations and federal national parks?

That’s an important, multi-billion dollar debate and one that the next president and the new Congress will have to deal with. Millions of jobs, of federal workers and of private sector people in every state, are at stake.

The argument for privatization is that it saves money. Industry can do it better and since it doesn’t have to pay federal wages and offer federal fringes, can do it cheaper. Many experts say that the government employs six contractors for every one non-postal civil servant. Since the Eisenhower administration, many Republicans have argued that the government shouldn’t be in the business of business.

People who opposed privatization, led by federal unions, said there are some functions, like tax collection, that must be kept in-house for reasons of quality-control and security. Many rank-and-file feds, forced to compete with industry for work, claimed they were forced to spend more time justifying their jobs than actually doing their jobs. Generally speaking, Republican politicians favored privatization while Democratic politicians opposed it.

Ironically, however, privatization got its big jump start during the Clinton era downsizing of the civil service. Jobs that were considered as “overhead” or nongovernmental were farmed out en masse. Privatization got a big jump start during the civil service downsizing of the 1990s. It has continued and a lot of feds say they spend more time justifying their jobs than doing them. Feds have won many of the competitions with industry and Congress seemed to be on the verge of slowing the pace.

And yet…

The U.S. Senate has decided to privatize its historic (and price-friendly) dining room. The Washington Post reported that the Senate food operations, now staffed by federal employees, have been losing money. Possibly embarrassed by the situation, the Senate took the action in a rare, late-night voice vote. That’s the legislative equivalent of a tree falling in a forest with no one to hear it.

The House privatized its food operations years ago. For the same reasons. Private outfits make money or they move on. The Senate dining room had a couple of problems. Prices (which are low to moderate for the D.C. area) and perks – as in civil service pay scales, retirement benefits and the like.

The Senate plan is to give dining room staffers buyouts. The contractor may or may not be required or encouraged to keep them on, but pay and benefits will change. The Post noted that “…the embarrassment of the Senate food service struggling like some neighborhood pizza joint has quietly sparked change previously unthinkable for Democrats.”

For years members of Congress, staffers, guests and media assigned to Capitol Hill enjoyed low-prices, the famous House bean soup (required to be on the menu every day) and highly subsidized barber shops and beauty shops. ( Today most TV conscious Senators wouldn’t be caught dead with a standard haircut.)

Many Senators (and staffers) still enjoy the service, prices and prestige of the dining room. It is a nice (inexpensive) place to take constituents. And it will probably remain so, under new management.

But if Senators, especially those who oppose privatization elsewhere, want to insure their “new” food staffers (who may be one-time civil servants who were cut loose), they had better take a crash course in 21st Century tipping etiquette.

Nearly Useless Factoid

Here in the office, we were talking about the transition and someone mentioned “turnover,” which, of course, made me think about pie.

According to foodreference.com, the average American eats 6 slices of pie per year, but what kinds? A little nosing around Google, and we find epicurious.com offers the following results of a nationwide poll by Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America (the makers of Mrs. Smith’s pies.) When asked what their three favorite pies are, here are the results: