Procurement Policy Chief: No “Massive Insourcing” The Obama administration is targeting certain jobs for insourcing and telling agencies to make strategic decisions rather than managing by numbers, according to Dan Gordon, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. “We have no intent to do massive insourcing,” he told an audience of contractors in Bethesda, MD, Dec. 7. “Insourcing is not a goal.” Other factors are converging to stall the administration’s insourcing efforts: pressure to reduce the number of federal employees and a proposed freeze on federal pay, which could discourage some people from taking government jobs. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has largely abandoned DOD’s insourcing initiative after finding that it did not produce the anticipated savings. Gates has ordered reduction in spending on service contracts instead. (SAA, 8/27) Gordon said civilian agencies are concentrating on two areas: jobs closely related to inherently governmental functions, such as acquisition; and IT services, where some agencies have hollowed out their in-house expertise. In some agencies, he said, “There is no federal oversight [of contractors] because there is no federal employee who understands their own IT systems…. Federal employees have to maintain control of the agency’s mission and operations.” Gordon also said he has told agencies to consider the impact on small contractors when making insourcing decisions. “We want to be very sure that the message is heard loud and clear in all agencies,” he said. The Republican majority in next year’s House of Representatives has served notice that it will focus on reducing the budget deficit, in part by shrinking the size of government. President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has recommended cutting the federal workforce by 10% and hiring only two new employees for every three who leave federal service.