In Bethesda, Hiring Policy, 'Competitive Sourcing' Clash (Disabled Out?)

Naval Medical Center Considers Replacing Disabled Workers

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 14, 2003; Page A21


President Bush's efforts to make government run more like a business collided this month with the reality that, in many ways, government is not a business.

For the past two years, the Navy, as part of the Bush administration's initiative, has been studying whether a private contractor should take over the custodial and food services provided by 21 federal employees at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

It is just one small example of Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative, which requires hundreds of thousands of civil servants across the government to prove they can do their work better and more cheaply than a private contractor, or risk seeing the work outsourced.

But in one important way the 21 workers in the hospital scullery are different: All are mentally retarded, beneficiaries of federal policies that promote the employment of people with disabilities.

more.........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21575-2003Oct13.html