Cost containment: Panel votes to trim the federal workforce

A House committee last week voted along party lines to cut the federal workforce by limiting new hires.

Republicans on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee lined up unanimously behind the measure. Only one Democrat joined the "ayes" in the 23-14 vote.

The proposal was taken from a series of recommendations offered by the president's own bipartisan deficit reduction commission. You remember -- the one chaired by former Sens. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, and Erskine Bowles, a North Carolina Democrat.

That's right. The commission President Obama himself put together to offer bold budget proposals -- and then promptly ignored because their suggestions conflicted with his activist government philosophy.

Under the proposal that will now go to the full House, federal agencies would be allowed to replace only one out of every three departing workers. The goal is to trim the federal workforce by 10 percent in the next three years, saving taxpayers $139 billion over the next decade.

An amendment added by the committee would also cut contract spending by the same amount spending is reduced on federal employees each year. The government has 2.1 million federal workers and almost 10.5 million contract employees.

"Taxpayers can no longer be asked to foot the bill for a bloated federal workforce," said one of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla.

Indeed, with the economy still in the tank and deficits soaring out of control, Washington can't afford to ignore personnel costs. This move -- along with an ongoing federal pay freeze -- will result in a far more efficient and productive employee base.

Nevertheless, Jacob Lew, Office of Management and Budget director, said there could be a downside to the cuts. "I think it's really important that federal workers not feel that they're being singled out," he noted.

Nobody is singling out federal workers for anything. They're simply being subjected to the same fiscal realities that private-sector workers endure each day.

The measure is sure to pass the GOP-dominated House. The question then becomes: Will Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., allow a vote in the upper chamber, or will he do the bidding of government unions at the expense of the struggling taxpayers who must pick up the check?