|
Kennedy-Hatch Amendment
IMPORTANT: All DoD lobbying on pending legislation must be done on employees' own time and without using appropriated funds. DoD employees should download this information only on a home or union computer and are encouraged to sign up for Action News on a private email account. Here’s a pre-written letter that you can send to your Senators in support of the bipartisan Kennedy-Hatch Amendment:
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , I urge you to support the bipartisan Kennedy-Hatch Amendment to the FY07 Defense Appropriations Bill. The bipartisan Kennedy-Hatch Amendment would make Department of Defense (DoD) privatization reviews less unfair to civilian employees by preventing the cost comparison process from unfairly penalizing them for the federal retirement benefits established by the Congress. Instead, retirement benefits for civilian employees and contractor employees would be excluded from the cost comparison process so that privatization reviews can focus on who can deliver services more efficiently. The bipartisan Kennedy-Hatch Amendment builds on a bipartisan provision that was first included in the FY05 Defense Appropriations Bill to exclude health care costs from the cost comparison process of privatization reviews. Thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens and Ranking Member Daniel Inouye, this provision was subsequently included in the FY06 Bill (as well as in the House and Senate versions of the FY07 Bill). Questions are being raised by Republicans and Democrats alike about the utility of the Office of Management and Budget's controversial privatization scheme. The DoD Inspector General has reported that DoD is unable to track either costs or quality of contracts undertaken through privatization reviews. At a time when more and more Americans are fearful for their retirement benefits, now is no time for DoD to ramp up a privatization process that will deprive even more working Americans of their retirement benefits without any benefit to warfighters or taxpayers. Please tell me how you will vote on the bipartisan Kennedy-Hatch Amendment.
Sincerely, |
Campaign Launched: |
| Background Information |
