USFS Cuts Maintenance and Operations to Pay For Job Privatization Study

[Boreas]

"The Forest Service is cutting some programs in order to divert the operating money to pay for unexpectedly expensive studies on what agency functions might be shifted to private companies...

The National Federation of Federal Employees, the federal employee labor union which opposes the Bush administration's privatization initiative, estimates the cost of the studies will reach $100 million, 10 times the initial projection of $10 million...

The administration is studying the potential savings to be had by allowing private firms to compete for as many as 10,000 of the Forest Service's 40,000 jobs...

In the Northern Rockies region, for example, $180,000 was taken from trail maintenance to complete a study. In Montana, campgrounds didn't open on schedule because maintenance money was diverted."

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/080603/sta_forestse...