The days of outsourcing government IT work may be dwindling, at least for the intelligence community. And it may be a harbinger for things to come for outsourced federal contracts throughout government. The next Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he wants to keep inherently governmental work inside the bubble and not contracted out. He pointed to outside interrogators as one kind of contract that he wants to stop.

"My strong preference is that interrogators in the intelligence world be a professional cadre of the best interrogators in the business," Blair said. He said the government should rely on contract interrogators only in special circumstances, such as when a suspect speaks an obscure dialect.

In August 2008, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that the 16 intelligence agencies employed 27,000 contractors in 2007, reports the Federal Times. The contractors handled such specialized jobs as data gathering, analysis and information technology work. The office also said it costs the intelligence community about $80,000 more than the average federal employee costs.

The reason for the increase in contractors is a bureaucratic one. The ODNI said the increase in contractors was partly caused by downsizing in the 1990s, and the failure to enact a new intelligence authorization bill has left 2005 hiring caps in place, making it harder for the intelligence agencies to hire new staff.

CACI, one of the government's biggest intelligence contractors, recently announced the award of $114 million in new and expanded national security and intelligence contracts for the second quarter of 2009. That's just one big contractor who may be seeing times change with Blair's philosophy.

For more on new intelligence polices:
- check out this FederalTimes.com article