OMB POLICY STATEMENTS
OMB: Forestry for Sale
An email circulated pushed for more privatization in the Forestry Service. In question is the appropriateness the timing and the quantity. There has been a push to bid 100 government jobs to the private sector. At issue is the wording, which seems to indicate that the cart has been put before the horse. The decision seems to be a foregone conclusion, although information is being disseminated with rather little time for the Forestry Service to respond accordingly.

"It appears to us that the decision [has] already been made, and now the agency is scrambling to do the analysis to justify [its] decision," said William Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees' Forest Service Council.

A lobbyist for the American Federation of Government Employees, said, "the numerical privatization quotas, although outlawed by Congress and ostensibly repudiated by OMB, are, unfortunately alive and well . . . resulting in [public-private competitions] being conducted for political reasons, rather than policy reasons."