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FCW Forum: Can feds turn back the clock on outsourcing?

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.), speaking Monday during a virtual town hall meeting, reiterated her promise to cut 500,000 contractor jobs in her first year in office.


"This administration has given away so many of the fundamental functions that our government should be performing," Clinton said.


Speaking on the eve of the "Super Tuesday" primaries, she said the Bush administration's outsourcing policy has been a failure because, among other reasons, "we are not getting our money's worth."


Cutting half a million contractors would save the government $18 billion "that I think we could use in better ways," Clinton said.


What do you think? Forget, for a moment, the political context of this discussion. How difficult would it be for agencies to bring work back inside government after it has been outsourced? Do agencies have the workforce to handle that work? And what would be the financial impact?


Post a comment on this blog (registration required) or send an e-mail to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Outsourcing) and we will post it for you.

Posted on Feb 05, 2008 at 6:59 PM


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Wed, Feb 13, 2008 Richard Stone

Hillary would never be able to eliminate that many contractor jobs without crippling the government. Outsourcing has caused a critical gap in Technical areas that will take many years to train up to competent levels. The government no longer has competency in areas such as IT and Programming. Outsourcing and cutbacks in those areas have severely impacted governments ability to perform in those areas.

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 Todd Rissinger

When people in both public and private sectors forget where their value comes from, comments such as those from Hillary and many other politicians raise concern. Any good business person knows their company and products are only as good as the people developing and running them, whether they are military, government, or contractors. We all know there are good and bad employees on both sides, so perhaps recognizing poor performers and moving them along would address the problem instead of the symptom. Perhaps using accountability, measures of success, and return on investment as part of the process would address the problem of non-performance on both sides. Decreasing contractors increases unemployment, oddly, the same would be true of reducing government workers and military personnel. That said, it would move the problem to another sector, but not truly address it. This country has significant problems and requires intelligent thinkers to address THE PROBLEM without pushing blame to government or contractors. There is enough fault to go around, but not enough sound decision making to fix it. Start there and we may have a successful business plan that works for all Americans.

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 Mike Taylor

It is important to remember the original premise of A76 legislation, as follows:"In the process of governing, the Government should not compete with its citizens. The competitive enterprise system, characterized by individual freedom and initiative, is the primary source of national economic strength. In recognition of this principle, it has been and continues to be the general policy of the Government to rely on commercial sources to supply the products and services the Government needs." The founders of our Constitution believed that the role of federal Government was to only provide those functions that could not be addressed by individual citizens or local government. Hilary, and many like her, believe that we cannot function without their guidance, and thus we need more government rather then less.Anyone who has worked in both the public and private sector that believes that the public sector can do anything more efficiently has missed something important in their work experience. In the private sector, decisions are made in real time and actions implemented. The public sector requires various levels of discussion, approval, and evaluation, all of which cost time, but the value of this time is not accounted for in any outsourcing competition.We need to return to the original premise, that our elected officials should not use tax dollars that they collect from private enterprise to compete directly with, and take jobs from, those individuals that are providing the dollars.

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