As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

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Where are the Government Web Developers?

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Where are the web developers in Government?

Are you a web developer who works for a non-defense related federal agency? Not a contractor, but actually employed by the Executive Branch of Government? If so, I'd like to meet you. Because I'm beginning to think you don't exist. USAJobs tends to agree with me, too. From what I'm able to gather, the entire federal government is hiring a total of 6 "IT Support Specialists," which look like cleverly disguised network administration jobs and "off the shelf software management" jobs.

To be specific, what I'm looking for is:

  1. A web developer (Someone who knows Python, ASP.NET, PHP, Django, Ruby on Rails, alongside HTML and CSS)
  2. Who doesn't work for a contracting firm, but is instead employed directly as a full time employee by a federal agency who
  3. Builds user facing federal websites, and
  4. Does not work for defense related agencies.

I've met strategists, managers, new media directors, bloggers, even "architects," but not a single developer. I've met lots of government contractors who work as developers as virtual FTEs for the Government. And granted, I don't have much contact with the Department of Defense-- I'm sure deep within that organization there are developers building software for the government that keeps us safe. But outside of defense, are there any? Do they exist? I've asked around, and nobody can seem to point me in the right direction.

If you know of any, point me in the right direction, and let me know why they seem so rare in the comments.

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Rep. Flake: Campaign contributions are a financial interest in an earmark

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Rep. Jeff Flake has released a letter asking the Ethics Committee asking it to "specifically prohibit members from being able to certify having no financial interest in an earmark when they have received campaign contributions from the entity that would benefit from the earmark or those affiliated with it."

Essentially, Flake is asking the committee to hold that, for earmarks, campaign contributions create a conflict of interest in the same way that, say, being part owner of a company would create a conflict of interest: The more flush the company is with federal contracts gotten through earmarks, the better off ...

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PMA Group probe: What did the House vote for?

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Roll Call's Tory Newmyer and Jennifer Yachnin are both good reporters, and their story is certainly easy to read, but I'm still sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what it is that the House just voted for in the matter of PMA Group, the lobbying firm at the heart of a series of federal investigations involving campaign contributions to members of Congress and earmarks to some of the firms clients:

The Democrats' resolution, offered by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) with the backing of leadership, would give the Committee on Standards of Official ...

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