July 11, 2002

TO: NASA Employees and Contractors

FROM: A/Administrator

SUBJECT: Competitive Sourcing

President Bush identified Competitive Sourcing as one of five elements
of the President's Management Agenda for improving the management and
performance of the Federal Government. You have probably been hearing a
lot about Competitive Sourcing as we implement it at NASA, so, I wanted
to take this opportunity to share some information about how we're
implementing the initiative at our Agency. Competitive Sourcing is about
examining our activities to ensure that we are getting optimum
performance. Competitive Sourcing is not about downsizing the workforce
or across-the-board outsourcing; rather, the cost and quality of
performance of activities will be compared, and in some cases competed,
with comparable activities. That is our national policy and, moreover,
it makes good business sense.

The Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act requires all agencies
to inventory all in-house activities by function each year and to
characterize them as either inherently governmental or commercial. NASA
has completed that inventory. We will examine that inventory and
complete a Competitive Sourcing plan. In that plan, we will identify a
number of activities that appear to be good candidates for comparison.
Both the inventory and the plan must be submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget for approval.

I expect that our self-examination may result, in some cases, in
organizational and staffing changes. We may discover that some
activities should remain in-house but should be performed differently,
that other activities that are currently performed in-house should be
contracted out or that some functions are performed better by other
Federal agencies or other NASA installations than currently conducted.

NASA has a limited budget for an ambitious mission: to understand and
protect our home planet, to explore the universe and search for life,
and to inspire the next generation of explorers. The President and
Congress have allotted to NASA what they believe is a reasonable share
of the taxpayers' money to pursue our mission. It is our duty to make
the most of those scarce resources entrusted to us. Competitive Sourcing
will allow us to do more with our budget and find the best way to
achieve our goals. And that will be good for NASA and for the taxpayers.

> 2

In case you have any questions on Competitive Sourcing, the enclosure to
this memorandum provides points of contact and other sources of
information.

***Original Signed By***

Sean O'Keefe

Enclosure

Enclosure

+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
|     | Point of     | **       | **Phone  | **E-mail Address**      |
|     | Contact      | Position | Number** |                         |
|     |              | /Title** |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| ARC | Nancy        | A        | 650-     | nbingham@arc.nasa.gov   |
|     | Bingham      | ssociate | 604-6544 |                         |
|     |              | D        |          |                         |
|     |              | irector, |          |                         |
|     |              | System   |          |                         |
|     |              | Ma       |          |                         |
|     |              | nagement |          |                         |
|     |              | &        |          |                         |
|     |              | Planning |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| D   | Monique      | Deputy   | 661-     | moni                    |
| FRC | Sullivan     | Pro      | 276-2593 | que.sullivan@mail.dfrc. |
|     |              | curement |          | nasa.gov                |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| GRC | Brad Baker   | Pro      | 216-     | Bradl                   |
|     |              | curement | 433-2800 | ey.J.Baker@grc.nasa.gov |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| G   | Mike         | Pro      | 301-     | mladom                  |
| SFC | Ladomirak    | curement | 286-7522 | ir@pop200.gsfc.nasa.gov |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| JSC | Gregory      | Director | 281-     | gre                     |
|     | Hayes        | of Human | 483-2316 | g.w.hayes1@jsc.nasa.gov |
|     |              | R        |          |                         |
|     |              | esources |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| KSC | Jim Hattaway | Pro      | 321-     | James.                  |
|     |              | curement | 867-7212 | Hattaway-1@ksc.nasa.gov |
|     | Rick         | Officer  |          |                         |
|     | Arbuthnot    |          | 321-     | R                       |
|     |              | Director | 867-3494 | ichard.Arbuthnot-1@ksc. |
|     |              | of Human |          |                         |
|     |              | R        |          | nasa.gov                |
|     |              | esources |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| L   | Kim Stone    | Pro      | 757-     | K.G.Stone@larc.nasa.gov |
| aRC |              | curement | 864-2426 |                         |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| M   | Steve Beale  | Pro      | 256-     | St                      |
| SFC |              | curement | 544-0257 | eve.Beale@msfc.nasa.gov |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+
| SSC | Rebecca      | Pro      | 228-     | Rebecca                 |
|     | Dubuisson    | curement | 688-1636 | .Dubuisson@ssc.nasa.gov |
|     |              | Officer  |          |                         |
+-----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------------------+

Agency Competitive Sourcing Team:

Joe LeCren, 202-358-0431, <jlecren@hq.nasa.gov>

Ron Lentz, 202-358-1064, <rlentz@hq.nasa.gov>

Deborah O'Neill, 202-358-1534, <doneill@hq.nasa.gov>

Ken Sateriale, 202-358-0491, <ksateria@hq.nasa.gov>

For additional information, see the following web sites:

[http://competitivesourcing.nasa.gov](http://competitivesourcing.nasa.gov/)

<http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement/fair-index.html>

[http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/](http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars)

<http://emissary.acq.osd.mil/inst/share.nsf>

[http://www.govexec.com/outsourcing/](http://www.govexec.com/outsourcing)