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Another idea under consideration, officials said, is expanding federal direct hiring authority so agencies can better compete for software developers and other specialists. Agencies now must rely on the lengthy, often onerous federal hiring process run by the Office of Personnel Management, which requires evaluating multiple candidates for every position, lengthy questionnaires and giving preference to veterans.
Now, I have nothing against veterans. I work with many vets. But, ask yourself: How will veterans respond if the federal government proposes to stop giving preferences to veterans when hiring for high-tech jobs? Won't the lobbyists of veterans groups all over America spring into action and urge legislators to drop this proposal?
Now, ask yourself: What will happen if the federal government changes its hiring practices and it turns out that 70% of new high-tech hires are male and 40% are Asian and Indian? Once again, won't Jesse Jackson and the rest of the affirmative action Stasi spring into action and pressure the government into creating quotas for women, blacks, and Hispanics for those plum, high-paying high-tech jobs? (See my blog post For CNN, "Asian diversity" isn't real diversity.)
Finally, I shudder to think what influence the public service employee unions, like SEIU (the top contributor to Obama and his Democrats in the 2012 elections) will try to exert on any new hiring and compensation practices in the federal government.
The problem is that government hiring is often based not on merit, but on politics. And in politics everything is, well, politicized. But, if hiring practices in the federal government continue to be based on politics rather than merit, there is no way that the high-tech workforce in government will ever be as good as it is in the private sector.
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