Catherwood LibraryILR School

Under pressure from the White House to comply with president Bush’s attempts to decrease the federal workforce by contracting various services out to private corporations, the Army is considering cutting almost 214,000 jobs. The changes could result in over sixty percent of civilian Army support employees---close to 155,000 workers---being laid off starting as early as spring 2003, in what the Bush administration has said will be by far the largest and most abrupt outsourcing the Army has ever undergone. The move to privatize so-called non-warfare essential positions is part of a larger push by president Bush to down-size 425,000 federal government jobs in a move that has raised questions of whether Bush is seeking to punish public sector unions for their powerful opposition to him in the 2000 presidential elections.