WASHINGTON – The federal government has temporarily delayed a move to privatize the jobs of 157 federal seafood inspectors.

A 1998 law requires federal agencies to prepare detailed lists of all commercial activities performed by government employees, and to eventually open up many of those jobs to private competition.

The federal Office of Management and Budget has told agencies to “outsource” 15 percent of their commercial jobs by October, although it has acknowledged that some agencies may fall short of this target.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s seafood inspection program certifies the quality of seafood produced by U.S. companies. The program is voluntary for members of the seafood industry and funded by company-paid user fees. It receives no appropriated funds.

In July 2001, an OMB memo mentioned NOAA’s seafood inspection program as a possible privatization target. In January, Commerce Department administrators reclassified the program from “inherently governmental” to “commercial.”

But the idea ran into a “perfect storm” of opposition, according to John Threlkeld, legislative representative for the American Federation of Government Employees labor union, which represents the inspectors.

“Not only does labor object to it, but the program’s management objects to it, and the industry opposes it as well,” Threlkeld said. “It’s a perfect storm – the iron triangle of labor, industry and government.”

Under the law, public employee unions can file a challenge to a privatization plan, and both the unions and program managers did so. The challenges were rejected by department administrators on June 2, but both managers and unions filed an appeal.

After the appeal was filed, the Commerce Department unexpectedly announced that more time was needed to study the issue.

“Normally if you get denied on the challenge, you get denied on the appeal,” Threlkeld said.

He speculated that the department’s shift may have been partially prompted by a letter to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, from U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and U.S. Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and signed by more than 30 other congressional Democrats.

“The mission of the program – helping ensure the safety, wholesomeness, proper labeling and quality of the seafood consumed by people in this country or shipped to foreign countries by U.S.-based firms – strikes us as precisely the kind of task that the government is uniquely qualified to perform,” the lawmakers wrote.

Crystal Straughn, a spokeswoman for NOAA, said that claims the program would be privatized are inaccurate.

“The plan calls for the potential contracting out of functions performed by 157 seafood inspectors,” Straughn said in a statement. “The management would remain under government control. We value the service that seafood inspection provides. The issue is functionality and cost effectiveness. Even though the industry is paying for the program, they have the same right to make sure they are paying for the most cost-effective program.”

Straughn said the Department of Commerce is studying whether the inspectors should be contracted out, placed under the management of another agency, or left as is. She said there was no estimate of when the department’s review would be complete.

Some NOAA administrators have said a food inspection program doesn’t fit with the agency’s core mission of scientific research. Threlkeld said there has been some discussion of moving the seafood inspection program to the Department of Agriculture, but Congress would have to sign off on the change.

“That would require legislation, and there may be some people on some committees who may not want to lose that jurisdiction,” he said.