OMB News 
Top News
- Senators push Tangherlini for assurances GSA is improving
- As VA works to eliminate one backlog, one more might emerge
- Senator: IRS to pay $70M in employee bonuses
- Furlough song: Laugh or you'll cry
- 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
- Does security clearance process need a makeover?
- 8 contract executives guilty of 8(a) contracting fraud
- Whistleblower suit leads to $12M false claims settlement by SAIC
- NASA engineer, 29, recognized for improving aeronautical testing
- USPS reaches energy reduction goal ahead of schedule
- NOAA meteorologist helps save lives one storm at a time
- NASA picks 8 new astronauts, 4 of them women
- House passes sweeping $638 billion defense bill
- NIH tops list of best companies for baby boomers
- Latest postal reform proposal OKs 5-day delivery
- Wednesday federal headlines - June 19, 2013
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 Savings from outdated or inefficient IT projects can be plowed into new innovations, he said.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.
Agencies met 77 percent of cyber requirements in 2011
In a new report to Congress, the administration said continuous monitoring is taking hold, but HSPD-12 still is floundering. OMB also reported agencies spent $13.3 billion on cybersecurity last year and that government employees make up 60 percent of the cyber workforce.
Senate bill aims to speed up elimination of excess federal properties
Bipartisan legislation in the Senate aims to streamline the elimination of excess federal properties by setting up a council within agencies and the Office of Management and Budget and creating government-wide property disposal goals.
OMB to increase IT project oversight with improved dashboard
Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel said agency technology managers will receive reports on the accuracy of the data they put in the portal. The Office of Management and Budget will use the reports to spot possible problematic projects. Version two of the IT Dashboard also will offer more information on specific projects that fall under a bigger investment category.
Watchdog board adopts new strategic plan
The Merit Systems Protection Board has come up with new strategic plan for the next four years which updates the agency's mission and vision statements and includes new strategic goals.
OMB upgrades IT Dashboard with new tools, better data
The portal provides more access to individual agency projects, lets departments find duplication and improves overall data quality. OMB also has published the source code for the public to use.
Grassley, Issa call for review of federal policies for using personal email
In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeff Zients, the two lawmakers say the Food and Drug Administration lawsuit raises broader questions about how other agencies monitor employee use of personal email. The House and Senate members want OMB to conduct a governmentwide analysis of these policies.
OMB builds strategy to better target grant fraud, error and waste
The Obama administration has released a set of proposals it hopes will improve the oversight of grant programs. Danny Werfel, controller at the Office of Management and Budget, told Federal News Radio why the changes are necessary.
