Senator MacCaskill’s grandsons ham it up for the camera.
March 29th, 2012 | Congress Defense Government reform Homeland Security Procurement Uncategorized | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
Spring Break fever was in the air today on Capitol Hill. Legislators have officially fled Washington D.C. and there will be no hearings until April 16th.
But before the final votes ensued, the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight held a hearing where Senators McCaskill, Portman and Tester grilled witnesses from the Army, The Office of Personnel and Management and The Department of Homeland Security over contractor spending.
Meanwhile, Chairwoman McCaskill’s grandsons were in attendance. My guess is they are on their own Spring Break. They sat graciously through the hearing; only occasionally trying sneak into my shot. I’m sure they were absolutely enthralled with the subject of Contractors: How Much Are They Costing the Government.
When Grandma adjourned the hearing she let the boys smack the gavel to officially call the hearing to a close – then they really spotted me. And as kids do, they hammed it up for the camera. So, cute.
Senator McCaskill speaks with OPM Chief Operating Officer, Chuck Grimes, while her grandchildren ham it up for the camera, March 29, 2012.
Missing from budget request: Agency performance info
February 15th, 2011 | 2011 Budget 2012 Budget Government reform OMB | Posted by Sean Reilly
Last February, the Obama administration used its fiscal 2011 budget request to roll out more than 120 “high-priority performance goals” for federal agencies to meet.
Twelve months later, how are all those agencies doing?
You won’t find out from the White House’s FY12 request.
“Significant progress has been made on some priority goals, while weaknesses have been identified and are being addressed in others,” the document says. It then cites a couple of the cheerier examples—such as the Energy Department’s weatherizing 295,000 homes—but with no context and few details. The agency-by-agency list of goals posted on the White House web site doesn’t reflect the fact that some objectives—such as those for NASA–have changed since last year.
The updated performance info was left out of the latest budget request because the information will be posted online, Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Moira Mack said in an email.
That point could be another couple of months away, however.
Although OMB has been tracking agencies’ progress on performance.gov since last summer, access to that password-protected web site is generally restricted to federal employees. In September, federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients predicted that it would open to the public later that fall. That step is now expected by this summer, Mack said. The administration plans to make only “portions” of the site available to Congress and the public, according to the budget request.
That’s because performance.gov contains “sensitive information” Mack said. OMB is also making changes based on feedback from stakeholders and to meet the requirements of recently passed Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, she said.
Meanwhile, for a White House that promised unprecedented transparency, its performance management system continues to look exceedingly opaque.
Tags: Jeffrey Zients, Office of Management and Budget, performance.gov. performance management
Feds, industry talk cyber, healthcare and procurement
October 26th, 2010 | Government reform Information Technology Procurement Regulation | Posted by Nicole Johnson
I’ve heard several remedies in the past few days for curing government’s acquisition woes.
The latest: turn the tables and create an industry scorecard for government’s past performance on acquisitions. At least that’s what one fed proposed during the Executive Leadership Council CXO Roundtable event on Tuesday.
The candid discussion among nearly 500 feds and industry covered healthcare, cybersecurity and consolidation issues facing government.
Here are some of the results from a poll conducted at the event:
- 53 percent think the implementation of meaningful use requirements (financial incentives and rewards for meaningful use of certified electronic health records) will increasingly challenge healthcare over the next several years.
- 53 percent said that to a very large extent extreme oversight causes a culture of fear that stifles innovation and risk taking in favor of compliance and cost, preventing agencies from taking advantage of new business models.
- 37 percent said a strained acquisition workforce is the major acquisition challenge blocking initiatives that are important to the organization’s success.
Tags: ELC, health IT, healthcare
Bulk of BTA workforce comes from contractors
September 14th, 2010 | Defense Government reform | Posted by Sean Reilly
Almost two-thirds of the workforce at the Business Transformation Agency, a Pentagon shop slated for the chopping block, is made up of contract employees, according to figures obtained by Federal Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
Of 1,124 workers, 725 are contractors, 375 are civilian and 24 are military personnel, the figures show. In announcing his decision to close BTA within the next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that the agency employed “approximately 360 people.” Gates was apparently referring only to government civilian employees.
Federal Times filed the FOIA request after repeated attempts to obtain the workforce information from Gates’ office went unanswered. So far, no response from a Pentagon spokeswoman this afternoon on the contractor ratio.
Although BTA was created several years ago to modernize DoD’s business practices, Gates said at the Aug. 9 news conference that its focus had shifted more “to day-to-day oversight of individual acquisition programs, a function that can be performed by a number of other organizations.”
Tags: Business Transformation Agency, Defense Department, Robert Gates
Obama to SES: We need you
September 14th, 2010 | Agency Management Government reform OMB | Posted by Sean Reilly
President Obama is urging the Senior Executive Service to embrace his accountability agenda, according to a memo released today.
“As the most senior managers in the federal government, you know how essential the work you and your colleagues do is to the nation,” Obama told more than 7,000 SES members. “You also are aware what happens when your best efforts are thwarted by outdated technologies and outmoded ways of doing business.
“You understand the consequences of accepting billions of dollars in waste as the cost of doing business and of allowing obsolete or under-performing programs to continue year after year.”
“Working together we can change that.”
The memo’s existence was first reported by The Washington Post.
Obama added that he has asked acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients, who is also federal chief performance officer, for regular updates on progress in making government “more efficient and effective.”
In his own accompanying memo, Zients told SES members that “as a group, you set the tone and expectations for what the federal workforce can accomplish.
“For us to succeed in overcoming skepticism and bureaucratic inertia, we need you to spread the belief that performance improvements are not only critical, they are well within our reach.”
The administration has settled on six strategies–such as driving agencies’ top priorities, cutting waste, and attracting and motivating top talent–and will be tracking results on the web site, performance. gov. Now available to federal managers, the site will be opened to the public later this fall, Zients wrote.
Along with other members of the President’s Management Council, he said, “I will be following up with you regularly to review our progress and to get your input on where things are going well and where we need to make further improvements.”
Tags: Jeffrey Zients, President Obama, Senior Executive Service
Zeints to helm OMB until Lew confirmed
July 30th, 2010 | 2012 Budget Government reform OMB | Posted by Tom Spoth
Zeints
Politico is reporting that federal chief performance officer Jeffrey Zeints will be the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget until Peter Orszag’s replacement, Jack Lew, is confirmed by the Senate.
Rob Nabors, a former Orszag deputy who has been serving as senior adviser to President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, will return to OMB as acting deputy directo, Politico reports.
When Lew is able to take over, he’ll face a tough road trying to advance the administration’s budget-cutting efforts, as my colleague Steve Losey reported recently.
Tags: Jack Lew, Jeffrey Zeints, OMB, Peter Orszag
Who knew hiring reform could be so exciting?
May 11th, 2010 | Government reform HR Management Office of Personnel Management OMB White House | Posted by Tom Spoth
The Office of Personnel Management really pulled out all the stops at today’s event announcing President Obama’s reforms to the federal hiring process. Held in an auditorium at OPM’s E Street offices, it had the feel of a campaign event, with U2′s “Beautiful Day” playing on loudspeakers before the event as media, special guests and OPM employees took their seats.
Marvin Carraway, one of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers credited with stopping a gunman at the Pentagon subway station March 4, was on hand as one example of an exemplary federal employee. He got a standing ovation. OPM director John Berry, federal chief performance officer Jeff Zeints and two cabinet members were on hand.
And of course, they had Teddy Roosevelt’s desk. The trustbuster apparently used the handsome mahogany furniture when he was on the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and the desk gets rolled out whenever there’s some major civil-service reform. Berry and the rest of the gang used the desk for a quick signing ceremony, after which Berry proclaimed, “It’s done! Teddy would be proud.”
Tags: Bono, hiring reform, John Berry
OK, we get it, you’re going green
May 6th, 2010 | Energy management General Services Administration Government reform Procurement Uncategorized | Posted by Tom Spoth
So yesterday at the GSA Expo, Administrator Martha Johnson was walking around in a black and white outfit, if I remember correctly. But by the time she arrived at the Coalition for Government Procurement dinner to announce GSA’s new goal of eliminating the government’s carbon footprint (good luck with that, by the way), she had changed into — you guessed it — a green jacket.
Johnson’s speech received what sounded like polite applause last night, from a crowd made up mostly of vendor representatives. And CGP president Larry Allen was fairly critical of Johnson today, even after he’d had a night to sleep on it. He sent me an e-mail that included the words “an arbitrary goal that makes for good press but has no basis in
reality,” although he later said he didn’t necessarily think Johnson had set such a goal, but simply that he hoped she wasn’t. It’ll be interesting to see whether setting this lofty goal spurs federal agencies and contractors to action as Johnson hopes it will, or if setting the bar so high will be counterproductive.
UPDATE: I should clarify that Allen’s group has pledged to work with Johnson on her initiative and wants to play a role in developing the specifics of her plan. I don’t mean to paint this as a GSA vs. industry fight; Johnson also stressed that the private sector should play a key role in reducing the government’s environmental impact, and the fact she delivered her message at an industry-sponsored event only underscores that.
Tags: green government, GSA Expo, Martha Johnson
Public discussion on official secrets starts today
June 29th, 2009 | Agency Management Government reform White House | Posted by Steve Watkins
To follow up on Gregg’s earlier post…
The White House is also hosting an online discussion about how it should revise the policy governing classified national security information.
Until Wednesday, the Public Interest Declassification Board will host a “Declassification Policy Forum” through the White House Open Government Blog to take comments on President Barack Obama’s May 27 memo ordering a review of the executive order outlining classification policy.
Through the discussion, the White House hopes to answer the following:
- “Are you satisfied with the current executive order? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? What should a new executive order include that is not in the current order?”
- “How can the government make the declassification process more transparent?”
- “Should the government prioritize what it declassifies? If so, based on historical significance or other criteria?”
To view or participate in the discussion click here.
If online discussions aren’t your thing, but you want to let your voice be heard, the declassification board is hosting a traditional public hearing at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Washington, D.C. headquarters on July 8. The Federal Register has details on how to participate. You can also email comments to the board directly at pidb@nara.gov.
OMB welcomes Zients
June 22nd, 2009 | Agency Management Congress Government reform OMB Transition | Posted by Steve Watkins
The nation has its first chief performance officer.
The Senate confirmed Jeffrey Zients‘ nomination Friday. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag welcomed his new deputy for management with this blog post.
Now we wait to see what changes Zients will bring to federal performance management. He’s had a successful track record imbuing positive performance into private sector companies through his work at the Corporate Executive Board Company and the Advisory Board Company.
Tags: chief performance officer, confirmation, Jeffrey Zients