In-Sourcing

We had an all-hands meeting at a certain government agency on Friday. The Director gave the spiel and quarterly awards that he had prepared and then opened the floor for questions.

At first there were none, until he mused aloud that the practice of dismissing everyone for the day to "think about the work environment" after the all-hands meeting may be suspended if he didn't get any questions.

A couple of questions trickled in, until I realized that I did have one: what's the deal with all the Federal in-sourcing we've seen lately? Scores of contractor positions have been "federalized"; the ranks of the federal employees has grown, the contractors' has shrunk.

To wit: the Governor of Virginia invited me to get a Government Job.

Please join us on Monday, March 8th for a job fair in Stafford, Virginia.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner is hosting a job fair on Monday, March 8th, for Virginians looking for work in the federal government. The event is free and open to the public.

More than three-dozen federal agencies will participate, including: the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, IRS, the Office of Personnel Management, FEMA, the Peace Corps, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Labor, and the U.S. Secret Service.

Here are the details:

DATE: Monday, March 8, 2010

TIME: 9 a.m. - Noon

LOCATION: Univ. of Mary Washington - Stafford campus

College of Graduate and Professional Studies, University Hall

125 University Boulevard, Fredericksburg, VA

For more information, and to RSVP, visit: http://warner.senate.gov/jobsfair

He confirmed what we've heard before: the current President and administration is philosophically disposed towards larger government and this is where the push is coming from. Although there is no "quota" per se, the direction is to identify and convert the positions that are "inherently government functions". I've seen half a dozen of those in my little shop alone last year.

The next statement took me a little by surprise: the follow-on action is to identify positions that provide "near government functions" and federalize those too. What the heck is a "near government function"?

He had no answer for that one. Neither do I.