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The appointment of Joshua Bolten as White House Chief of Staff is a clear signal that the administration plans no meaningful changes in the policies which hinder federal workers. These policies include its unwillingness to be more open to differing perspectives or points of view on managing the federal workforce, and its determination not to seek the recommendations of the federal employees who perform the day-to-day work of the American people. As Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mr. Bolten has been a leading proponent for the president’s management agenda—including both an untested and complex pay-for-performance system and the contracting out to the private sector of an increasing number of federal jobs. Mr. Bolten has promoted federal contracting with little regard for whether taxpayers are truly receiving the best value for their tax dollars. It is my hope that a new OMB director will look much more closely at a host of issues surrounding the White House drive to contract out federal jobs—including the impact on the morale of the federal workforce; the actual cost to federal agencies of running competitions for the work of the public; and the severe loss of vital institutional knowledge generated when federal work is farmed out to private companies.