Outsourcing guidelines proposed by the Obama administration have the potential to pressure IT professionals working as government contractors. Overall, the proposal requires agencies to bring core functions in-house. As InformationWeek points out, that "seems to leave the door open for extensive use of information technology outsourcing," but there's bound to be some impact.

(F)or example, the letter explicitly lists technical evaluation of contract proposals and "work in any situation that permits or might permit access to confidential business information" among tasks the letter says demand strict oversight to make sure no inherently governmental functions end up being outsourced.

The key phrase in the proposal is "inherently governmental function." The Office of Federal Procurement Policy says jobs like budget analyst or criminal investigator would fit the definition, and so wouldn't be eligible for outsourcing. (If you want to, you can read the OFPP's memo here.)

-- Mark Feffer