The contracting company receives usually 2-3x what the actual developer makes- so if the gov't pays $300K for a developer, they get a $100K developer. Some of

The contracting company receives usually 2-3x what the actual developer makes- so if the gov't pays $300K for a developer, they get a $100K developer. Some of that overhead is justified, but a lot of it is the company's profit. The old answer used to be for the government to hire directly, but that's been hamstrung for like 40 years by now.