Another provision in the omnibus measures requires that within 120 days, each department and agency must submit to OMB a report stating the total size of its workforce, differentiated by number of civilians, military and contract workers, as of the end of calendar 2008. Two months afterward, OMB will have to submit "a comprehensive statement delineating the workforce data" by department and agency as well as on a government-wide basis.
The report likely will be used by opponents of contracting out to argue that the contractor workforce has grown too large. They have asserted for years that contractors represent a hidden workforce that dwarfs the number of federal employees.
