[Citizen Tom Paine]

Beginning with Nixon, government technical work was “contracted out” to private companies. This way the number of Government scientists in an agency could be reduced. The existing scientists became COTRs (Contracting Officers Technical Representatives) who primarily managed contracts for the agency. After about 5 years, the keen edge of their technical expertise was gone. More importantly, the government labs that could do the technical work were underfunded and their personnel were cut back. They could only perform tasks that were mandated in the Constitution. Consequently, an agency could not perform technically in most instances. This holds for FDA and NASA and some other agencies. DOD is a slightly different situation.

[khnyny]

What’s the solution, then?