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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many people here seem to resent the FFRDC contract vehicle. I get it that some people genuinely believe that some FFRDC contracts are ‘bloated", but this has been the argument of the Professional Services Council (PSC) for years, and it is the PSC companies thriving, not the FFRDCs that are prohibited from competing with the PSC companies for contracts. Maybe RAND, MITRE and others are "bloated", but compared to Booz, or McKinsey or other orgs gunning for the FFRDC’s business are FFRDC’s bloated? Do we have anything like the profit margin these attacking organizations in the PSC have? The whole idea of FFRDC’s in the FAR is to create an organization that has long term institutional knowledge of their sponsor, and has the independence to provide unwelcome analysis, if it’s right. PSC orgs have the capability to offer this, but not the incentive. The FFRDC contract serves a valuable national interest, and should be supported. [/quote]

What about the FFRDCs that take donor money and appear to be running an astroturfing campaign in support of a narrow set of policy positions?

[/quote]

Nobody is doing that[/quote]

Yeah, I’m not familiar with this problem. Please give an example. (And note that some companies like RAND have business lines outside of their FFrDCs.)[/quote]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/technology/nvidia-china-chip-sales-ai-doomerism.html

"Nvidia and Mr. Sacks have been particularly pointed in their criticism of [b]RAND Corporation, a federally funded think tank that does national security research on semiconductors and other subjects, said four people familiar with their lobbying efforts[/b] who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were private. Nvidia has focused some of its criticisms on Jason Matheny, a deputy assistant to President Biden on technology and national security who is now chief executive of RAND."

[/quote]

yikes... this sounds odd from the ny times article

Nvidia’s complaints about RAND have contributed to [b]the dismissal of at least one member of the Commerce Department’s administrative staff who was partly paid by RAND, said five people familiar with the dismissal [/b]who spoke anonymously because it was a personnel matter. The staff member was dismissed after Nvidia complained that licenses were not being granted for its chip sales to China, these people said.[/quote]

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