Rethinking OMB Circular A-76: The Case for Federal Insourcing of Software Engineering

The federal government is rethinking OMB Circular A-76, which historically has treated engineering as "commercial activity" to be outsourced, including core custom software, fueling sole-source capture and contractor dependence.

Based on recent comments from Scott Kupor at the Office of Personnel Management, OMB is shifting focus from cutting federal headcount to insourcing critical skills, including hiring 10,000 engineers. Many on the right may bristle, but Reagan-era outsourcing helped create today's "shadow FTE" bloat on the contractor side. In my opinion, insourcing is going to reduce the overall headcount including these shadow FTEs by reducing middlemen and managers.

Key Challenges

Culture

Will the civil service turn engineers into bureaucrats, or will engineers elevate the culture? Merit-based hiring must be paired with the ability to remove disengaged employees.

Recruiting

Most U.S. software talent skews left and may avoid working under Trump 47, making the funnel difficult.

Corporate Pushback

Companies lobby against government capabilities they view as market competition. Historically this included shameful acts like punishing Grace Hopper for sharing Navy-developed COBOL tools externally. Today's federal engineers must be able to build on and contribute to open-source work, but this will provoke lobbying. The government needs clear criteria for handling such disputes.

Why I Applied

I've applied for one of these new federal engineering roles. It's a major pay cut, and most of my friends think I'm crazy, but I feel like this is something America requires. Hope the background check adjudicator makes progress soon to get me in the fight.