Ex-Interior Chiefs Condemn Plan to
Privatize Park Service Jobs

JULIE CART / LA Times 30jul03

Two former secretaries of the Interior who served under Democratic presidents broke a long silence Tuesday with a strongly worded condemnation of the Bush administration's initiative to turn National Park Service jobs over to the private sector.

Bruce Babbitt and Stewart Udall called the policy radical, reckless and an "attempt to dismantle the National Park Service." The two Arizona Democrats said they had refrained from criticizing the administration, but they said the controversial privatization program -- in which 70 percent of the full-time jobs in the Park Service could be replaced by private-sector employees -- had forced them to speak out.

"The administration is hell-bent on this radical course of action," Babbitt said, in a conference call from Albuquerque. "The hour is late. It's our national heritage that's at stake."

The administration says that the private sector can more economically and efficiently perform the same tasks now accomplished by some rangers, scientists and other employees. But permanent employees say the proposal is a way of bringing in replacement workers who would receive lower wages and benefits but won't have the knowledge or professionalism of career Park Service staff.

Babbitt served two terms under President Bill Clinton, and Udall served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Until Tuesday, neither former secretary had offered an opinion about the environmental record of President Bush or his Interior secretary, Gale Norton.

Babbitt said every new president is entitled to a grace period and jokingly characterized himself and Udall as having been "sitting on the front porch in rocking chairs." Whatever reluctance they might have harbored apparently fell away in the news conference, as each man was scathing in his assessment of the administration's conservation record, especially as it pertains to the Park Service.

"This administration is so indifferent to the values of conservation agencies," Udall said. "I'm appalled."

The privatization program is part of the administration's effort to identify as many as 850,000 federal jobs that could be performed by private- sector employees. The "competitive sourcing" initiative originated from the Office of Management and Budget and aims to streamline federal agencies and make them more cost-effective by replacing some positions with outside contractors.