Politicians try to engineer a better government, but MITRE governs the country's best engineering. A private, not-for-profit organization, MITRE Corporation provides consulting, engineering, and technical research services primarily for agencies of the federal government. It has primary research facilities in Massachusetts and Virginia. It also manages serveral federally funded research and development centers serving organizations such as the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. MITRE was founded in 1958 by former MIT researchers.