Gov pay in DC relative to cost of living SUCKS. BAD. As a GS-12 (what most of those cybersecurity positions will be at minimum) you'd only make 86k, compared to 70k here. 16k is definitely a difference but not enough to make up for the huge cost of living difference. Also, you can count on many many contracts coming out of this so there will be many civilians jobs coming too. They will still require security clearances, of course, but in DC, that's a dime a dozen so in order to be competitive for these jobs, you'll need one.