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- Sequestration, budget cuts taking its toll on DoD
- Small companies won't feel effect of lowered contractor pay cap
- GSA trying innovative approaches to disposing of real property
- IRS draws new criticism over $70M employee bonuses
- VA identifying project managers, then improving their skills
- OMB sets new deadlines to improve data on USASpending.gov
- As VA works to eliminate one backlog, one more might emerge
- BRAC-like commission proposed to hunt down government cost savings
- Sequestration claims another conference: DHS' GFirst cyber event
- Postal Service closing Capitol Hill post offices in 'symbolic' move
- Senators seek cost cuts for F-35 fighter jet
- Fed pens new furlough song
- Web guru Dorris brings new life to government websites
- EPA CIO Jackson returning to private sector
- Navy strikes enterprise licensing deal with Oracle
- Contractors with security clearances lack path to report problems
- NSA leak case gives vendors reason to reevaluate personnel
- 8 contract executives guilty of 8(a) contracting fraud
- Whistleblower suit leads to $12M false claims settlement by SAIC
Smithsonian to close galleries due to budget cuts
Smithsonian to close galleries due to budget cuts from Congress; park police face furloughs
New metrics to help agencies determine value of social media
GSA led a 12-member interagency working group to create a set of measures specifically aimed at defining the usefulness of social media for agencies. The agency also released an API that lets users create tools to bring together government social media feeds in one place. Both tools are called for in the Digital Government Strategy.
Declassification board 'agitates' for changes to document management
The Public Interest Declassification Board submitted 14 recommendations to President Barack Obama at the end of November. The suggestions cover everything from moving out of the three-tiered classification system to a two-tiered process to strengthening the National Archives and Records Administration's National Declassification Center to giving federal employees "safe harbor" protection if they adhere to a rigorous risk management process in how they perform their classification duties.
Federal Drive Interviews -- Oct. 2, 2012
Casey Coleman, CIO at the GSA, gives a preview of the 2012 Executive Leadership Conference. Lynn Bernabei, a partner with Bernabei and Watchel, discusses the House's sweeping update to the law protecting federal whistleblowers. Tom Fox of the Partnership for Public Service tells how managers can keep their workforce motivated in tough times. Miriam Nisbet of the National Archives discusses a new website aimed at speeding up the FOIA request process.
New FOIA portal promotes transparency, eases agency interactions
The Environmental Protection Agency partnered with the Commerce Department and National Archives to launch a new online portal aimed at streamlining the Freedom of Information Act request process for both the public and federal agencies.
Planning key to cloud success, agency CIOs say
A number of agencies have made high-profile migrations to cloud platforms and the Obama administration has issued sweeping guidance mandating agencies identify and transition services and applications to host in the cloud. For a look at how agencies are faring in their shifts to the cloud and the issues they continue to face, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp hosted a panel discussion, "Clearing the Fog Around Cloud Computing," sponsored by Level 3 Communications.
Cool Roofs Initiative helps agencies achieve energy-saving goals
Agencies are installing white, reflective roofs, solar panels and plant-filled green roofs to cut down on energy costs and save taxpayers money. This is all in response to President Barack Obama's executive order requiring agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency.
FOIA backlog grows even as agencies process more requests
Agencies dedicated more money and personnel to FOIA processing in 2011, but requests grew even faster.
NARA claims progress against backlog of classified papers
Ninety percent of backlogged papers have been assessed and sent to agencies for review, but unexpected problems may cause government to miss 2013 deadline to clear the backlog.
New electronic records plan brings government into 21st century
A new directive requiring agencies to move to electronic forms of record-keeping by 2020 will push an often two-steps-behind federal government fully into the 21st century, said Paul Wester, the director of modern records program at the National Archives and Records Administration. A key part of the directive is to expand and elevate the role of agency records managers. The guidance directs NARA and the Office of Personnel Management to develop a specific records-management career track institutionalize responsibilities and best practices.
New roadmap envisions electronic record-keeping by 2020
A new White House directive provides a roadmap for agencies to phase out the use of paper record-keeping by the end of the decade. By Dec. 31, 2019, federal agencies will be required, "to the fullest extent possible," to manage records electronically — including digital forms of communication, such as email — according to a directive from the Office of Management and Budget and the National Archives and Records Administration.
National archives gets ready to taste first fruits of TechStat labor
The National Records and Archives Administration will modify its Electronic Records System for the first time since it went into the operations and maintenance phase. Mike Wash, NARA's CIO, said the use of Technical Direction Letters is one of the key lessons learned from the TechStat session ERA went through in 2010.
IT projects pulled from brink of failure
TechStat is rarely about shutting down problematic technology programs. In an exclusive report, Federal News Radio examines how agencies are using the analysis to support existing improvement plans, to move to agile development and to change its relationship with contractors. CBP, NARA and the FBI are recent examples of agencies taking advantage of the visibility and transparency TechStat brings to get programs back on track and completed.
Agencies continue to struggle with records management
Federal agencies continue to struggle with properly managing their records, and the changing nature and technology of 21st-century record-keeping could throw a further wrench in the process, according to an annual report from the National Archives and Records Administration.
VA, National Archives team up to help dig out of claims backlog
The Veterans Affairs department has signed a deal with the National Archives and Records Administration to start digitizing billions of pages of paper documents dealing with Veterans' benefit claims.
Census, Archives face 'tsunami' of interest in 1940 census data
You might think the year 1940 is firmly ensconced in the history books. But the Census Bureau, which earlier this week released data from that year's census online, has brought it into the digital age.
1940 US census viewable online after near freeze
The National Archives said Tuesday that census pages are again available for viewing. The government website got 37 million hits hours after the information was first released to the public Monday morning, all but shutting out would-be researchers from the records.
Governmentwide portal to help streamline FOIA management
An office within the National Archives and Records Administration, told a congressional subcommittee a new governmentwide portal could help agencies better manage the hundreds of thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests the government receives each year.
US Census covering Great Depression to be released
It was a decade when tens of millions of people in the U.S. experienced mass unemployment and social upheaval as the nation clawed its way out of the Great Depression and rumblings of global war were heard from abroad.
