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Protesting Too Much

By Soloway, Stan
Publication: Government Executive
Date: Thursday, January 1 2004

Just before Congress adjourned for Thanksgiving, legislators came perilously close to extending to federal employee unions the right to protest decisions to award contractors work formerly done by civil servants. Had the proposal moved forward, federal workers could have appealed such decisions to

the General Accounting Officejust as companies do now. Ultimately, Congress appears to have pulled back, thus preserving the proper balance of rights and responsibilities in federal procurement. Nevertheless, debate over the issue generated anger and confusion.

Advocates of extending protest rights to federal employees claim it is a simple matter of equity: Since contractors can protest source selection decisions to GAO, federal employees should have the same right. Despite that argument's surface appeal, however, it doesn't hold water. Federal employees, unlike private sector employees, always have had the right to administratively appeal agencies' competitive sourcing decisions. But extending that right to the legal protest process is based on a faulty assumption that federal employees are the legal and practical equivalents of government contractors.

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* UNITED NATIONS ...

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Subject: Labor unions, Civil service
Location: United States

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Protesting Too Much

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