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Obama's Plans Require a Lot More Hands

Federal workforce could expand by 100-250K, experts say

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 3, 2009 8:57 AM CST

(Newser) – 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.

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President Barack Obama's huge budget and stimulus packages could lead to the largest expansion of the federal workforce since the 1960s. (AP Photo)

With some states seeing double-digit unemployment, a federal hiring boom could come at just the right time. (AP Photo)

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You kind of look across the federal landscape and you say there has to be more bodies with more expertise, as well as more bodies that can just deliver the basic services we've already promised. - Paul C. Light, professor of public service at New York University

What group of socialists got in the room and wrote this budget? Do they have any idea what the implications are? This is the most aggressive 180-degree turn that we have seen in the American system.
- Newt Gingrich

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Obama's Plans Require a Lot More Hands