Reliance on Contractors is Likely Here to Stay

Paul R. Verkuil has written a very important book about a dramatic transformation that has taken place in the federal government. As the number of civil servants has remained constant, the number of government contractors has increased dramatically. In Valuing Bureaucracy: The Case for Professional Government, Verkuil observes that the “use of contractors in the federal, state and local governments rose from 6.2% in 2005 to 11.9% in 2015” and that “the current federal services contractor budget is around $250 billion.” Verkuil concludes that we need to be concerned about this trend, because contractors have become the “fourth branch of government” that is taking over missions and decisions that are inherently governmental. What has led to the creation of this so-called fourth branch? The answer lies in a combination of structure and politics. A lead culprit is the antiquated civil service system. It simply takes too long to hire the kind of…

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