And they're off!

After having endured a month or more of grim budget news, we were looking for a way to turn some lemons into lemonade. And we came up with this…

As you may or may not know, each year the Partnership for Public Service goes through a lot of data to rank federal agencies and come up with a list of The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.

We were looking at the top 20 “best places to work” from the groups’ 2010 list, and we realized that 2011 is a far different year from a budget perspective. Leaner budgets could have a significant effect on a lot of federal agencies — and maybe on this year’s rankings.

We figured you might have some ideas on that.

So we decided to ask you — as part of an unrelated and wholly unscientific effort — to select the agency you think will come out on top of this year’s list.

In honor of Kentucky Derby Day, we’ve made it a “horse race,” and posted a “betting ticket” on the Federal Daily website, where you can vote for your winning agency and track the race as more votes come in.

Take a look. Cast a vote. Then watch 'em run.

C’mon. What could it hurt?