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- VA chipping away at oldest disability claims in backlog
- What's the latest on phased retirement?
- New mobile tools gives agencies ‘giant innovation permission slip'
- Congress pressures agencies to speed up office consolidations
- Furlough Friday: Multiple agencies took advantage of holiday weekend
- Data breach puts DHS employees at risk of ID theft
- IRS replaces official in Tea Party controversy
- Commerce nominee sails through hearing
- Obama nominates Archuleta as next OPM director
- FedRAMP achieves another cloud security milestone
- Tangherlini to be nominated as permanent GSA chief
- House GOP panel moves on deep budget cuts
- OMB reworking financial system requirements
- Federal retirement funds temporarily tapped
- Friday federal headlines - May 24, 2013
Performance improvement has 'turned the corner' in government
Shelley Metzenbaum said agencies are doing a better job in setting outcome-based goals and using data to measure their progress. OPM is finalizing guidance and training to use the competence models for performance improvement positions. Treasury and DHS are setting their own path to using data to meet their mission goals.
OMB says VA should be exempt from sequestration cuts
The Veterans Affairs Department should be exempt from the automatic across-the-board cuts — or sequestration — laid out in last summer's Budget Control Act, according to an April 23 letter from the Office of Management and Budget.
Congress returns to packed budget agenda, tight deadlines
Congress returns to session this week with a few short months to reach a budget resolution for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and agree on how to avoid the automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade that will be triggered Jan. 2, 2013, under the Budget Control Act debt limit deal. But don't expect much to get accomplished before the election, say budget experts.
White House unveils new tool to stop improper payments
The White House launched a new "Do Not Pay" tool on Thursday to prevent improper payments to individuals and companies. Agency heads must submit plans to adopt the tool by June 30.
Budget Control Act unclear about how to make DoD sequestration cuts
BCA does not specify how those cuts would be implemented. One interpretation is every program is cut by the same amount, which would be by about 13 percent. The other interpretation of the act is the overall spending would have to be reduced by 13 percent and the Pentagon could pick and choose the programs to cut, said Kevin Brancato, a defense analyst for Bloomberg Government.
OSTP helping agencies take open gov to '2.0 level'
Chris Vein, the deputy chief technology officer for government innovation at OSTP, gives an update on how agencies have done in the past few years in carrying out their open government and transparency plans.
White House touts success of agency 'challenges'
Increasingly, agencies are using a tool at their disposal. Instead of issuing RFP's, they're issuing challenges. And according to a new report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, agencies that have jumped on the challenge bandwagon have begun to "reap the rewards of well-designed prizes integrated into a broader innovation strategy."
Cutting, investing aren't mutually exclusive, federal CIO says
Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel wants agencies to cut spending and invest in new capabilities at the same time. Savings from outdated or inefficient IT projects can be plowed into new innovations, he said.
OMB launches PortfolioStat to reduce commodity IT spending
Agencies have to meet a series of milestones starting in June to eventually migrate two commodity IT functions to shared services or strategic sourcing contracts. VA, GSA, Interior and Patent and Trademark Office have tested the concept of managing by portfolios as well as vendor management organizations.
Legislative changes needed to make bigger dent in improper payments
OMB controller Danny Werfel said the computer matching provisions in the Privacy Act make it harder for agencies to share information that would make stopping or finding waste, fraud and abuse easier. Senate lawmakers agreed they need to update the law to protect information but reduce the complexities.
House Oversight FISMA bill envisions beefed-up OMB role
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee unveiled a bill to overhaul a decade-old law detailing how federal agencies protect their computer networks from cybersecurity threats. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, told Federal News Radio the Office of Management and Budget is better poised to be a "fair arbitrator" than the Homeland Security Department.
Bill will propose combining Energy, EPA into one agency
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is introducing legislation this week to consolidate the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single agency.
Lieberman puts reorg authority on 'bucket list'
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has sponsored legislation to revive the fast-track authority requested by President Barack Obama. Other senators, however, want more details before signing off on the plan that, in part, would allow the President to merge overlapping business- and trade-related agencies.
Analysis: Concept of mobile worker not new, but changing technology is
Two former administrators in the Office of E-Government & Information Technology at the Office of Management and Budget, Karen Evans and Mark Forman, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss the mobile push in government, especially as OMB has recently broadened the focus.
House passes bill to streamline process for disposing of excess federal property
The House unanimously voted Tuesday to create a new process for disposing of the federal government's 14,000 excess properties, beginning with a pilot program to sell off more than a dozen of the most profitable facilities. Under the law, agencies would be able to keep a portion of the proceeds from the sale of real property. The bill would also create a comprehensive database compiling a list of all of the federal government's real property.
OMB tells agencies to measure cumulative effects of regs
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator Cass Sunstein sent two memos to agencies telling them to take specific steps to improve and reduce duplication in new and existing rules.
New white paper offers guidance on move to the cloud
Representatives from three agencies spoke with The Federal Drive with Tom Temin about newly released guidelines for federal agencies that are adopting cloud computing.
OMB crowdsourcing improvements to Section 508
The administration released a set of high-level concepts from listening sessions conducted in 2011 and is asking for input from the agencies, contractors and the public. Interested parties can comment on 14 suggestions to improve how people with disabilities access government information.
OMB evolving mobile strategy as focus broadens
The administration now will release a digital services strategy in April instead of just one for mobile computing. The document will bring together two efforts, mobile and .gov reform. Agencies are trying to avoid mistakes made when they entered the PC-era by ensuring a mission need for these devices.
OMB's pause of financial systems had little effect on cost, schedule
GAO reviewed the administration's implementation of the July 2010 memo calling for a government-wide review of financial management projects. Auditors found about half of the projects said there was no change in cost and three-quarters said their schedule remained the same.
