> Agreed. Many of the "unbillable" work items listed in the article seem to be establishing important procedures and tools to improve productivity and a positive work environment, which most tech companies do as well.

I have nothing but disdain for someone spending $4,000 of public money writing a Slackbot to politely encourage you to not use the words "guys" or "dudes" [1] [2]. If that's important to you, go burn up VC dollars doing that, not tax money that is desperately needed for real work. This opinion is not about having an agenda; that's common sense.

I'm off to craft a FOIA request for the historical Slack logs for 18F.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12792768

[2] https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/01/12/hacking-inclusion-by-customiz...