DorobekInsider: What’s behind the GSA leadership vacancy — the NewsChannel 8 liner notes

We’ve been following following the ongoing trials, tribulations and drama at the General Services Administration in recent months. And tonight, on NewsChannel 8’s Federal News Tonight program to talk about GSA.

Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller recently had a special report on GSA called Agency Instability.

Some data points:

• GSA has been without a permanent administrator since April 30, 2008 when Lurita Doan resigned. There have been a parade of acting administrators
• President Obama nominated Martha Johnson to be GSA administrator on April 2, 2009. Soon thereafter, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) put a hold on the Johnson nomination — and not over her qualifications, which nobody doubts, but because of a complex issue involving a Kansas City federal building.
• There have been a number of departures of senior career GSA employees — former deputy administrator Barnaby (Barney) L. Brasseux, for example.

The most recent discussions has been around the sudden and unexpected departure of Danielle Germain. She was named to that job June 10, 2008 — and then decided to leave that GSA post to join the National Academy of Public Administration’s Collaboration Project.

The conventional wisdom has been that Germain left is a sign that Johnson’s nomination is in trouble. That may be true — there is increasing concern that the longer the nomination process lasts, the less likely it appears that Bond’s hold may may not be lifted.

We’ll talk about all of this tonight.

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