this from a very pro Obama, pro govt employee website
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Federal Workforce Subcommittee, is considering pushing legislation that "tries to cure all the ills in the current system" rather than taking the usual path of incremental change.
He and others are tempted not only by the new mood, but also by two stark realities:
•President Barack Obama's plans are expected to expand the federal work force by hundreds of thousands in missions as diverse as tracking stimulus spending, helping to manage the baby-boomer deluge that's confronting Social Security and increasing the foreign service.
•In addition, one-third of the current 1.9 million-member federal civilian work force is eligible to retire within five years.
As a result, the government will need to hire about 600,000 people during Obama's current term, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group.
For a bureaucracy that's known to take a year or more to hire a single employee, that's a major challenge. Lawmakers are seeking ways to overcome three longtime hurdles: the anti-government mind-set, cumbersome federal hiring practices and personnel retention problems.
A New World Order Out of Chaos (News Page)
What's important about such discussions is that policymakers and members of Congress are looking for ways to expand the federal work force effectively and make it more nimble.
However, for the first time in a long time, Lynch said, "We have opportunities now we didn't have before."
Most Federal Agencies Expand Staffs in 2011
President Obama’s ambitious budget and stimulus plans will require the government to hire scores of new workers, the Washington Post reports. Analysts put the number between 100,000 and 250,000 spread among various agencies, the biggest expansion of the federal workforce since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society days. Some agencies are already planning hiring initiatives; Veterans Affairs, for example, expects to add 17,000 to the payroll. The federal workforce has been in decline since Reagan, and many see this as an overdue boost. “
We’ve had a government that has been starved,” said the president of the Partnership for Public service. But Republicans will likely complain Obama is expanding government. “What group of socialists got in the room and wrote this budget?” Newt Gingrich asked. - Obama's Plans Require a Lot More Hands Federal workforce could expand by 100-250K, Newser, March 3, 2009
Is government too big?
Some say the growth in the government's payroll is an unavoidable consequence of the challenges facing the nation — two wars, an ongoing terrorist threat and a troubled economy.
"In no way does this suggest the government is getting too large," said John Palguta, vice president of policy at the Partnership for Public Service. "There are significant workforce needs in the government, and we should be filling those. I think it's a fairly modestly sized workforce, given the nature of their tasks."
But conservative critics say it's a sign that the government has taken on too much, and worry unchecked spending growth will eventually bankrupt the nation.
"We're seeing a permanent increase in the size of the government workforce," said James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation. "Contrast that with what's happening in the private sector. The government is not tightening its belt. It would be better if everybody shared in the downturn, instead of public workers being insulated because Washington is not going to make any cutbacks."