But contractor costs are less obvious. And contracting out work allows politicians to take credit for thinning the ranks of the bloated bureaucratic herd. But many taxpayers feel better thinking that the federal payroll is going down, even though federal spending is going up. It's just doing so underground. The trend toward more contractors is certain to continue as agencies continue to reduce functions performed by civil servants and to farm them out to the private sector.
Some people think a smaller permanent federal work force is the way to go.
The Defense Department proposed such a reduction several years ago. They believe this administration is tilting increasingly toward contractors. The American Federation of Government Employees has been leading the charge against contracting out. The AFGE is the largest federal union outside of the Postal Service. At the urging of AFGE, a bipartisan group of senators asked the White House to throw out the proposal on reimbursement rates for contract workers.