TSA versus Booz Allen

/in /by

I’d like to use some details from the WaPo’s story on Booz Allen’s no-bid contract this morning to put some things in perspective. The article cites the SSCI with a price tag for each contract employee:

The average annual cost ofa contract employee is $250,000, almost twice that of a federalemployee, according to an estimate recently cited by the Senate SelectCommittee on Intelligence.

I’m guessing that, since so many federal employees are unionized, this is comparing mostly non-union contract employees with a union government employees. And the contract employee is making twice as much as the government union employee.

DHS is paying those obscene rates, they would argue, because those employees provide a crucial service at the front-line of protecting our nation.

So can someone explain to me why it is that Bush is promising to veto the bill finally implementing the changes recommended by the 9/11 Commission because he wants to prevent TSA’s workers from getting collective bargaining rights? Bush apparently thinks it is a bigger risk to our country to have airport screeners–our first line of defense against something like 9/11–earn one half of what we pay for contract employees, than to let airplane baggage compartments and shipping containers go uninspected.

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  1. Neil says:

    EW, Do you think the analysis you do on issues like this find’s it way into the government oversight process and makes a difference, or is your motive and expectation that by educating the politically-minded public, you can empower and motivate them to take back their government from the people who are using it to fleece us?

  2. CityGirl says:

    Neil, IMHO, I think EW is doing both. As for us, our part is to make sure we take what she uncovers and we run with it–by sending copies to our own Congress critters, to oversight committees, to ”journalists,” to friends and family until we break through those walls of resistance.

    EW, by the way, did you catch this zinger from Charlton about Abu from inside today’s WaPo?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02310.html

  3. Anonymous says:

    CityGirl

    Yeah–it’s stuff that’s been out there for months in the emails. Though if Charlton wants to get chatty, all the better.

  4. Sojourner says:

    EW, forgive me, but this is an EPU from the prior thread. Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales are ready to duke it out over executive privilege, and there are some obvious misdoings that could be used for impeachment proceedings against each of them. My questions are as follows (if you have any answers ;-)):

    Am I correct in assuming that since Kucinich has filed articles of impeachment against Cheney that those would be taken up before subsequent articles against Bush or Gonzo? (Asked another way, is there any way that Cheney could become President if Bush were impeached?)

    At what point would any of them cease to have any authority? (If articles are filed against Bush, does that preclude him from issuing pardons, etc)?

  5. eyesonthestreet says:

    Who is Booz-Allen, well apparantly they are ”Virtuoso’s of Outsourcing,”
    http://www.strategy-business.c…..00036?pg=0

    I’ll say. I hope some of that ”annual cost” trickles down here in the US. Or, as I am guessing, it is almost all offshore, like in India, China, and all those cheap labor sites. Stick it to the US taxpayer in US employment wage scales, then turn around and hire cheap labor (with NO labor regulations) and pocket the difference.

  6. 2strange says:

    I don’t know where they got the average federal employee salary from, it must include a lot of management types.
    A GS-11 will cost the government about $80,000.00 per year, most of the employees hired by DHS will be at a much lower GS level.

  8. William Ockham says:

    The costs referred to in the article must include the overhead costs of employees (benefits, retirement, etc.).

  9. 2strange says:

    No, WO, that is the ”cost to government” which included any government contributions to benefits. A cost to Government of $125,000.00 would be for a GS-13 or so. I’ve taken a look at usajobs.opm.gov and used Department of Homeland Security as a search item. There are lots of jobs being advertised, many of them high GS ranks, but alot of low level ones too.

  10. AmIDreaming says:

    ”…Bush is poised to veto anything that might prevent his cronies from massive profiteering in the name of our national security.”

    Given the news yesterday about the investigation of BAE and Prince Bandar, you have to wonder whether the group of cronies doesn’t include some prominent Saudis.

  11. freepatriot says:

    off topic smiler:

    scooter’s got a new addition to his title

    inmate number 28301-016

    now scooter’s got something I ain’t got

  13. Palli Davis Holubar says:

    There is another sad side to all this government contracting and it isn’t just crippling unions.. it’s also the fact that civil servant jobs are (were) the path into the middleclass for African Americans and other poor, but educated, Americans. Civil service is an important part of civic participation and it shouldn’t just be rich people who accept appointments to government agencies or take jobs in government offices while being applauded for their patriotism for sacrificing more lucrative incomes in the private sector. Cheney’s not sacrificing any income from Haliburton- it just has another name.

    A comment about GS pay scales: Those new religious law graduates are way above their pay rank. Gives a new meaning to the old expression â€good enough for government workâ€.

  14. siosal says:

    It’s an old story. Union busting is expensive, and those who want to bust unions will spare no expense.