Cass Sunstein on the limits of open government
March 10th, 2010 | Agencies OMB Regulation White House | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Cass Sunstein, the Obama administration’s “regulatory czar,” gave a speech at the Brookings Institution this afternoon. Regular readers are probably familiar with most of its content — the open government directive, OMB’s dashboards for transparency and IT projects. But Sunstein made a couple of interesting points on the limits of open government initiatives.
Tags: Cass Sunstein, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, open government directive, Regulation
Nabors: “Not an across-the-board cut”
January 26th, 2010 | 2011 Budget Agencies OMB | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
OMB deputy director Rob Nabors held a conference call with reporters a little while ago to talk about President Obama’s proposed three-year “non-security discretionary spending freeze.”
As we mention over on the homepage, the freeze only affects a fraction of the federal budget: $447 billion, or about 17 percent of total spending. Nabors clarified that it exempts Defense, Homeland Security, the VA, and the entire State/international affairs section of the federal budget. He also emphasized that the cuts aren’t uniform.
It’s not an across-the-board cut. We have honored the president’s commitment and gone line-by-line through the budget trying to find those programs that aren’t working, aren’t achieving their mission.
So some agencies in that “non-security discretionary” category will see their budgets continue to increase. Education, for example, probably will see some gains.
The flip side is that other agencies could actually see their budgets shrink. That’s simple math: If the $447 billion figure is fixed, and some agencies get more money, others have to receive less. We won’t know for sure until Monday, though, when the administration’s budget request is released. (And of course this all assumes Congress agrees to a freeze, which it hasn’t yet…)
Tags: Barack Obama, Rob Nabors, spending freeze
How would you fix agency IT systems?
January 20th, 2010 | Agencies Information Technology OMB | Posted by Rebecca Neal
Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeff Zients wants to know how you’d improve the government’s IT systems.
Obama administration officials, led by federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, met Jan. 14 with CEOs of companies such as United Airlines and Weyerhaeuser to discuss how to better employ technology to make agencies more efficient and responsive.
Zients posted summaries of the executives’ recommendations on his Office of Management and Budget blog and invites readers to comment on the suggestions. Some of the recommendations include:
- Agencies should serve customers through their preferred channels, such as self-service online.
- Agencies should keep IT projects from lasting longer than 18 months.
- Agencies should promote accomplished employees to long-term projects, freeing them from day-to-day work to focus on larger solutions.
What will you tell Zients about how to improve the government?
Orszag had Jon Stewart at ‘Good morning’
January 8th, 2010 | OMB | Posted by Steve Losey
In case you haven’t heard, White House budget director Peter Orszag’s home life just got a lot more complicated. For the appropriate — and always tasteful — analysis on Orszag’s “magnetic machismo,” we turn it over to Jon Stewart and his crack staff at the Daily Show.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Peter Orszag Sex Scandal | ||||
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Tags: Daily Show, Jon Stewart, OMB, OMG, Peter Orszag
More money SAVE-ing ideas
December 28th, 2009 | Agency Management OMB Workplace | Posted by Elise Castelli
While Nancy Fitchner’s SAVE Award winning idea to let veterans take home their unused prescriptions from Veterans Affairs Department hospitals will be the one included in the 2011 budget, that doesn’t mean the Office of Management and Budget is ignoring the 38,000 other ideas that were submitted to its first SAVE Award contest.
On the same day Fitchner was honored at the White House, OMB Director Peter Orszag told agencies to adopt some “common sense ideas” that were submitted and can be implemented without congressional action.
In a Dec. 21 memo, Orszag said in the short run agencies should:
- Make electronic pay stubs the default way of receiving pay stubs. Currently, 64 percent of employees opt in to the electronic pay stub system, but switching electronic stubs to the default system will boost those numbers, saving the government on printing costs, Orszag wrote. Those wishing to receive paper stubs would be able to opt out of the electronic system. OMB is working with payroll providers at the National Finance Center, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the National Business Center and the General Services Administration to implement this policy.
- Inform employees in Washington, D.C. offices that they can choose not to claim their monthly transportation benefits when they have a balance sufficient for the coming month. Orszag used the example of an employee who walks to work in the summer, but takes Metro the rest of the year.
Tags: Nancy Fitchner, Peter Orszag, SAVE Award
Congratulations Nancy Fichtner!
December 11th, 2009 | Agency Management OMB Veterans Affairs | Posted by Elise Castelli
Congratulations to Nancy Fichtner, a Veterans Affairs Department employee from Colorado, for winning the first ever SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award contest.
Her money saving idea: Allow veterans to take home the medications they use while at the hospital, instead of tossing the prescriptions in the trash when veterans are discharged. The idea would not only save the government money, but veterans too.
Fichtner’s idea beat out 38,000 other ideas submitted by fellow federal employees in the contest designed to harness the experience of frontline employees to save the government money. Her idea was one of four finalists selected by OMB staff and put to a public vote earlier this week.
Fichtner will jet off to Washington to present her idea directly to President Barack Obama on Dec. 21. The cost-cutting plan will be included in the fiscal 2011 budget.
Tags: Nancy Fichtner, SAVE Award
The Final Four!
December 7th, 2009 | Agency Management OMB | Posted by Elise Castelli
Congratulations to the four finalists in the Office of Management and Budget’s first SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award.
OMB staff narrowed down the 38,000 entries received between Sept. 23 and Oct. 14 to the following four:
- Allow citizens to make Social Security appointments online
This idea came from Christie Dickson, who works for the Social Security Administration in Alabama. Allowing online appointment scheduling will free up Social Security staff to handle other inquiries on the phone, Dickson told OMB. Approximately two-thirds of Social Security phone calls she receives are for appointments, and it would save time for both employees and citizens if there were an online option for appointment booking, she said.
- Allow veterans to take unused medications home from the hospital
This idea comes from Nancy Fichtner, of Colorado. Fichtner said VA hospitals should allow patients to take home unfinished prescriptions of medications they’ll continue to take after they are discharged. Current practice is to throw the unfinished medicine away, resulting in a waste and additional expense to both hospitals and veterans, she wrote.
- Streamline how agencies handle cash from visitor fees and other funds.
This idea comes from Julie Fosbender, an employee at the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. Her plan would streamline the process for handling visitor fees and other funds for the National Forests. Currently, employees handling cash collected from campground fees, park passes or other fees, must account for and document what was collected, bring the money to the bank, convert it into a money order and then turn it — and all of the associated paperwork — over to the unit collection officer. She writes: “The unit collection officer then recounts the receipts, makes two copies of the money orders and checks, creates a bill for collection, waits 24 hours for the bill to print, fills out a remittance report, runs two calculator tapes of receipts (one for her and one for the bank) and mails the package (via certified mail) to a bank in San Francisco, CA. … Why can’t we just deposit our collections into a local bank?”
- Streamline subsidized housing inspections.
This idea comes from Huston Prescott from Alaska. Prescott recommended that the Housing and Urban Development Department streamline subsidized housing inspections to cut out redundancy. Subsidized housing funds come from many revenue streams, all of which require their own inspection of the property, confirmation of resident incomes and annual auditing. Since inspectors are often reporting the same information multiple times, Prescott proposed allowing the same inspections, certifications and audits be used to save time and money.
Now that the four finalists have been chosen, the public has until 11:59 p.m. EST Dec. 10 to choose the idea they like best. That idea will be included in the 2011 White House budget proposal. The winning employee gets his or her picture taken with Pres. Barack Obama. You can cast your vote here.
As for the ideas that didn’t make it to the final four…OMB passed along “hundreds of the most promising ones” to the relevant agencies and departments for possible inclusion in their 2011 budget plans.
Tags: SAVE Award
Senate confirms OFPP leader
November 23rd, 2009 | Agencies Congress OMB | Posted by Rebecca Neal
The Senate confirmed Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Nov. 21.
Senators confirmed Gordon by voice vote during a break in work on the Senate’s health care bill.
We’re close to having TSA, OFPP leaders confirmed
November 19th, 2009 | Agencies Congress Homeland Security OMB | Posted by Rebecca Neal
Two critical federal leadership positions may soon be filled.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has unanimously approved Erroll Southers as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The committee approved both nominations by voice vote Nov. 19.
It’s unclear whether the Senate will vote on these, or any other nominations, before it recesses sometime next week for Thanksgiving. Both nominees are considered non controversial.
Government errors could mean big problems for contractors
November 17th, 2009 | Agencies Agency Management OMB Procurement | Posted by Elise Castelli
Contractors could face suspension, debarment or financial penalties if they fail to return and report an improper payment made by the government…even if the improper payment is the government’s fault.
That’s what an executive order meant to curb the government’s rate of erroneous payments will say, Peter Orszag, Office of Management and Budget director, told reporters during a Nov. 17 briefing on the value of improper payments made by the government in 2009.
Currently, contractors face no penalties when the government discovers an improper payment was made. All contractors have to do is pay back the sum without interest or penalty. The executive order, which will be issued in the coming week, will change that by allowing agencies to suspend, debar and fine contractors that fail to report these payments. That will create strong incentive for contractors to be vigilant in monitoring their government payments, said Danny Werfel, the controller of OMB’s Office of Federal Financial Management.
Werfel said:
The way it works today is if we give a contractor money that they have not earned and they never report it to us, but we just so happen to find it through an audit, all they have to do is make us whole. There are no additional damages on top of that. And that’s what the executive order would pursue as a way of incentivizing contractors to immediately tell us where we made an error, so they’re part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
Tags: Danny Werfel, improper payments, OMB, Peter Orszag