Oversight 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
Lawmakers skeptical of proposed cost-saving commission's future
A new commission, proposed by David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, would recommend ways to streamline government by removing duplication and extraneous spending from government agencies. Federal-employee unions criticized the proposal and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee lawmakers expressed skepticism that such a proposal could gain congressional approval.
IRS official contradicts claims about reviews
IRS official in DC, involved in scrutiny of tea party groups, contradicts earlier claims
Regulatory czar nominee pledges to speed up review process
President Barack Obama's pick to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) pledged to clear up delays in the regulatory process if confirmed by the Senate. Appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday, Howard Shelanski said improving the timeliness of OIRA's work -- which has come in for criticism from Republican lawmakers and transparency groups, alike -- is among his top priorities.
State Dept. eyes probe process after complaints
State Department reviews misconduct probe process after complaints of improper interference
Hagel: Budget forces review of outside contracts
Hagel says budget forces review of outside contractors such as NSA leaker
Energy officials land summer jobs for their kids
Report: Energy Dept. officials land jobs for their children, relatives despite nepotism rules
NSA whistleblowers say agency casts wide net
NSA whistleblowers say agency casts wide net, Verizon order is part of 'routine'
IRS official apologizes for lavish $4M conference
An Internal Revenue Service official whose division staged a $4.1 million training conference and who starred as Mr. Spock in a "Star Trek" parody shown at the 2010 gathering conceded to Congress on Thursday that taxpayer dollars were wasted in the episode.
Lawmakers, IG expose further vulnerabilities in VA's cybersecurity
The Veterans Affairs Department has been compromised by at least eight different nation state organizations that stole data from its systems, House lawmakers and other experts say. VA officials say there always are risks, but their computer security is better than ever before.
IG: IRS violated few policies in spending millions on conferences
The Internal Revenue Service held 225 employee conferences between 2010 and 2012, at a total cost of $49 million, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The report also revealed the embattled agency used funding originally slated to hire front-line employees to foot most of the bill for a $4.1 million conference held in Anaheim, Calif., in 2010.
Top Obama appointees using secret email accounts
Some Obama political appointees using secret email accounts; White House defends practice
DoD waging 'continuing war' on unproductive acquisition bureaucracy
The Pentagon will begin tracking how much time its acquisition managers spend performing and responding to oversight in an effort to remove "non-value-added" processes from the procurement system.
Classified spending and the economy
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts discuss the billions of dollars spent on intelligence operations by the federal government, and the latest jobs report.
May 23, 2013
White House wants to root out copycat programs - starting with STEM
The Obama administration's proposed fiscal 2014 budget called for consolidating or eliminating 116 of the government's 226 STEM initiatives and centralizing the coordination of STEM programs under just three agencies: the Education Department, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. The administration's STEM proposal is one of the government's first visible steps in reversing some of the duplication that riddles the federal landscape and which some lawmakers have seized on as examples of government waste.
Senate Finance to investigate IRS targeting groups
Baucus says Senate Finance Committee will investigate IRS targeting Tea Party groups
Will sequestration, retirement wave derail OPM's backlog goal
The Office of Personnel Management has made steady progress chipping away at a longstanding backlog of retirement claims. But Oversight Committee lawmakers and other government watchdogs remain concerned that the absence of a long-term plan to overhaul the mostly paper-based process combined with across-the-board budget cuts and a lack of strong leadership within OPM could stall or derail the progress the agency has made.
FAA safety oversight of aircraft repairs faulted
The Federal Aviation Administration's supposedly risk-based safety inspection system "falls short of being truly risk-based," especially for foreign repair stations, a report by the inspector general said.
Lawmakers take on legislative process in fight against duplicative programs
Two senators from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee want to change Senate rules in an attempt to make sure new federal programs or initiatives in proposed legislation don't overlap with existing efforts. Earlier this month, two House members introduced a measure that would require House committees of jurisdiction to hold oversight hearings on an annual report from the Government Accountability Office detailing government duplication.
Congress repeals STOCK Act reporting requirements for senior execs
Congress approved a bill Friday to eliminate expanded financial-disclosure reporting requirements for Senior Executive Service members, just days before the new requirements were to go into effect. Both the House and Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent. The expanded reporting requirements were set to go into effect Monday.
FEHBP modernization plan receives cautious optimism from Hill
The Office of Personnel Management told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the 50-year-old law creating the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) has hurt its ability to keep the FEHBP up-to-date. The agency estimates billions in savings over the next decade should Congress approve the White House's proposals in the 2014 budget request.
