Why the Government Outsources---in 3 Figures
The following is a guest post from Professor Kathleen Clark of Washington University Law.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
The following is a guest post from Professor Kathleen Clark of Washington University Law.
Robert O'Harrow recently wrote in the Washington Post that "given the threat of terrorism and the national security mandates from Congress, the intelligence community had little choice" but to rely on contractor personnel.
What he failed to mention was an additional factor that actually has driven the government's increasing reliance on contractor personnel: congressional and executive branch policies limiting the number of government employees.Politicians often speak of "downsizing" government when what they actually mean is decreasing the number of government employees.Over the course of 25 years, they increased the federal budget and decreased the number of federal employees, resulting in an 85% increase in service contractor spending (adjusted for inflation), as the figures below show. (These figures are taken from a report that I wrote for the Administrative Conference of the United States, which can be found here or here.)
Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.
