True, It'd be hard to be motivated on 35k/year to lead a project. But I'd consider it IF I'd be getting great training/materials in cutting-edge skills (ruby, html5, etc.) to make up for the low pay, AND got exposed to a good network of folks outside of just the government.
Be careful about calling any part of web design cutting-edge. It may change quickly what is in fashion on the web, don't mistake that for being technically challenging.