Government insourcing is not a present government policy. Yes, it does happen in certain mission critical areas where contractors don't work out. Some agencies tried to bring logistics, for example, back in-house and found it to be a total failure. Even assuming insourcing moves forward, it will not affect minority contracting because that is governed by mandated goals under the 8(a) program. I don't suspect that it will affect Small Business Set Asides (SBSA) either since, to the contrary, there has been a radical expansion of contracting in favor of women owned businesses. José A. Rivera, JD President & CEO Rivera, Sierra & Company, Inc.

Government in sourcing has been going on for over a year. As a manager in a large contracting company I have lost many good employees to civil service. Many of those going government took up to a $10k pay cut because of the decline in government contracting. However, recently Gates has put out a plan to freeze government hire and start reducing the number of government employees. Unfortunately, his plan includes reducing government contract by 10% a year over the next 3 years.   What has really hurt contracting companies of all sizes is the lack of support contract. There has been a strong push give all government contracts possible to small businesses. I support helping small businesses, but they are killing the mid-sized businesses by not allowing them to bid on contracts normally in their area of expertise. Small businesses are also struggling because of the lack of funding for projects and the reduction in A&AS support contract. A&AS support contracts (providing subject matter experts) has been the backbone of small business contracts.   All government contractors are struggling. Although they feel the crunch the only the giant OEMs like Lockheed, Boeing and Northrop are still doing ok.