There is a critical mass of facilities and colleagues. And the prestige of many federal scientific agencies endures. Finally, there are the comforts. There is no constant scrambling for grants, no quest for tenure. Except for fields like anthropology, where no one gets rich, the money scramble is a problem that federal science agencies cope with as creatively as they can.
Some scientists deal with the money issue by moving in and out of the federal government.
I worked for the government because I wanted to. At the NSF, recruiters have embraced the 1970 Intergovernmental Personnel Act, which permits the agency to bring in outside people for a limited time by matching pay and benefits. At the Defense Department, Congress has given the green light to pilot projects designed to cut bureaucratic red tape and make it easier to recruit scientists. Dawdling, she said, gives private industry the opportunity to swoop in and grab all the best candidates. At NIH, the agency must sell its intellectual milieu and hope for the best, because it simply cannot compete in salaries, let alone the consulting fees, honoraria and stock options scientists routinely receive on the outside.