The government’s push to open federal jobs to competition could open as much as $70 billion outsourcing opportunities to private firms, but lingering uncertainties on the final version of the rules make it more difficult to predict, according to a new report from research firm Input. Researchers considered the number of jobs that could be outsourced ? officials have estimated that almost 900,000 federal jobs could be suitable for outsourcing — and Bush administration officials have said they want agencies to open half of those to competition by September 2004.