One man’s bird crusade
March 12th, 2010 | Facilities General Services Administration Politics Uncategorized | Posted by Tim Kauffman
Mike Quigley is for the birds — literally.
The first-term congressman introduced legislation Tuesday that would require bird-safe materials and design features be used to the maximum extent possible on all new and renovated buildings maintained by the General Services Administration. The bill is similar to legislation the Illinois Democrat championed in 2008 when he was on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
The clouds in the sky and the clouds reflected in this building's windows look the same to a bird.
I am proud to build upon the work we did in Cook County to promote bird-safe building and spearhead an initiative at the national level that will make sure our tall buildings are not safety hazards. This bill will not only save millions of birds’ lives, but it is also completely cost neutral.
Collisions with buildings and other man-made objects is one of the leading causes of bird deaths, according the bill, HR 4797. Several design guides have been published to promote bird-friendly construction, and there’s even a website dedicated to the issue.
GSA already has incorporated bird-friendly features such as non-reflective glass and awnings into many of its buidlings, including the San Francisco Federal Building, the Suitland, Md., Census Complex and the U.S. Courthouse in Eugene, Ore. Quigley’s legislation would require similar efforts for all of GSA’s federal facilities.
Tags: birds, Mike Quigley
EEOC nominees on secret hold
March 2nd, 2010 | Politics Transition White House | Posted by Tim Kauffman
A senator has placed a secret hold on the confirmation of a gay woman and other nominees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, apparently in violation of a 2007 law that cracked down on such anonymous holds, Keen News Service reports.
Many conservative groups have oppposed the nomination of Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum as an EEOC commissioner because she is gay. Nevertheless, Feldblum’s nomination was reported out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in December along with three other EEOC nominations, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate.
Since then, however, an unnamed senator has blocked all of the EEOC nominations from going forward. The Keen News Service reports that there is no mention of the hold in the Congressional Record, nor has any senator made a public statement about the hold. Those actions are required for any holds under a 2007 law that was intended to make it harder for lawmakers to put anonymous holds on presidential nominees.
Three of the EEOC’s five commissioner positions, including the chairman, and the general counsel post are being held up by the anonymous action.
GSA’s Johnson names three regional directors
February 23rd, 2010 | General Services Administration Politics Transition | Posted by Tim Kauffman
Martha Johnson is taking more action at the General Services Administration.
A day after she rearranged the deck chairs to put more emphasis on green building programs, the newly confirmed GSA administrator filled three political posts.
Johnson named permanent appointees to head three of GSA’s regional offices:
- Jason Klumb as regional administrator of the Heartland Region, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Klumb, who at age 24 was one of the youngest elected leaders in the Missouri House of Representatives, also is a major in the Army National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps.
- George Northcroft as regional administrator of the Northwest Region, which covers Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Northcroft most recently headed up economic development and business relations for Seattle and the rest of Washington’s King County, which is the 14th most populous county in the nation.
- Shyam Reddy as regional administrator of the Southeast Region, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Reddy was a partner at the Atlanta law firm Kilpatrick Stockton, where he led negotiations involving complex financial, employment, tax, and structuring issues.
Today’s announcements bring the number of permanent regional administrators to five; Johnson has six more posts to fill.
Obama sounds off on GSA nomination hold
February 3rd, 2010 | General Services Administration Politics White House | Posted by Tim Kauffman
President Obama today sounded off on the hold that’s been placed on Martha Johnson’s nomination to head the General Services Administration, even as the Senate planned a procedural maneuver to force a vote on her confirmation.
After addressing the Senate Democratic Policy Committee Issues Conference this morning, the president opened the floor to questions. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voiced his frustration that many of Obama’s judicial nominees and political appointees were being blocked by Republicans.
While conceding that Democrats have been guilty of the same thing in the past, Obama said Republicans are blocking nominees for reasons that have nothing to do with their qualifications for their prospective jobs.
He then specifically mentioned Johnson, whose nomination has been held up by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., because Bond wants GSA to promise to move a federal complex to downtown Kansas City.
Nobody can tell me that there’s anything particularly wrong with her. They’re blocking her because of some unrelated matter. Don’t hold this — this woman hostage. If you have an objection about my health-care policies, then let’s debate the health-care policies. But don’t suddenly end up having a GSA administrator who is stuck in limbo somewhere because you don’t like something else that we’re doing.
Critics slam GOP sham “census” form
January 26th, 2010 | Commerce Politics | Posted by Tim Kauffman
A Republican Party fundraising letter that looks an awful lot like the official 2010 Census form is drawing complaints from all sides.
The mailing from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is disguised as a survey and is labeled the “2010 Congressional District Census.” The survey even includes a “Census Tracking Code” and is brandished with the words “census document.”
A GOP spokesman said the mailing was not intended to mislead voters, noting that it states in several places that it’s from the Republican Party. But lawmakers from both parties are criticizing the letter, saying it could be confused with the actual Census, which all U.S. residents are required to complete by law.
A Census Bureau spokesman tells the Associated Press that the agency has received several complaints about the mailings and is reviewing how to respond.
Dennis Johnson, director of the Census Bureau’s regional office in Kansas City, told a local newspaper that the timing of the letter was unfortunate to say the least, since the agency is just now beginning to mail out actual Census forms.
My biggest concern is that it might be confusing to some residents who get this and then get the real one in a couple of months.
Tags: Census Bureau, Republican Party
Fun Facts about the 2008 presidential election
November 5th, 2009 | Politics | Posted by Elise Castelli
Yes, Election Day was two days ago. And the presidential election was 365 days ago. But the Election Assistance Commission only released the results of its 2008 Election Administration and Voting Survey and its 2008 Uniformed and Overseas Voting Act Survey today.
The commission took the last year to quiz election officials, academics, community groups and voters from the 50 states, four territories and the District of Columbia. It found:
- More than 190 million Americans were registered to vote, a 14 million voter increase since 2004.
- Nearly 700,000 Americans used an online form to register to vote.
- More than 878,000 poll workers staffed approximately 132,000 polling places nationwide.
- Approximately 61 percent of voters cast their ballots in person at the polling station on Election Day; 17 percent used domestic absentee ballots; 13 percent voted early; 1.3 percent cast provisional ballots; and 0.7 percent sent in absentee ballots from overseas. (The balance falls into the very informative “other” and “not categorized” categories)
- Approximately 1 million ballots were sent to military personnel and citizens overseas. Of those, 69 percent were returned and 93.6 percent of those returned were counted.
- At home, 26 million absentee ballots were distributed and 91 percent were returned and counted.
- Electronic touch-screen machines were the most common type of voting equipment used in 2008, with 23 states reporting 218,370 touch-screen machines in use. However, the optical scan voting systems are more widespread, with 43 states using them. However, there were only 107,519 optical scanners in use.
One more word on the stimulus package
February 3rd, 2009 | Economic Stimulus Facilities Politics | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Steve calls out the wrongheaded argument that spending $75 million on FBI salaries is not economic stimulus.
We can go a step further: Everything on the Republican list of “wasteful projects” is stimulative. $88 million for a new Coast Guard icebreaker? Someone is getting paid to build the ship. $248 million for new furniture at DHS headquarters? Someone has to build the furniture.
Even the $400 million for the CDC’s STD prevention programs has an effect on the economy, because someone — whether feds or contractors — is getting paid to administer those programs.
You can argue that these aren’t the most stimulative types of spending, or the smartest way to spend limited funds. Personally, I’d love to see more infrastructure spending in the stimulus bill, particularly for mass transit.
But anyone who tells you that spending on government programs isn’t stimulative is being disingenuous.
Tags: stimulus
The Revolving Door: Tom Davis Edition
November 17th, 2008 | Congress Politics Procurement | Posted by Elise Castelli
There has been a lot of attention on who is coming into government these days, but let us not forget who is leaving and where they are going.
Retiring Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va, one of the few members of Congress deeply involved and interested in government information technology and procurement issues, is joining the consulting firm Deloitte, a government contractor offering financial and consulting services. While serving on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Davis has been panned by watchdogs for his close ties to industry and praised by industry for his understanding of their needs.
According to Deloitte’s press release:
Davis will advise Deloitte’s clients on major trends, opportunities and challenges facing the federal government, with a focus on technology innovation and government transformation.
So even though he’s leaving Congress, we can expect to see Davis remain a player on the federal technology and procurement scene for the foreseeable future.
Tags: Tom Davis
How do you say "Six more years" in Russian?
November 11th, 2008 | Politics | Posted by Mariah Walters
The Kremlin announced Tuesday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted an amendment to extend the presidential term from four to six years. News agencies speculate that Medvedev’s move might allow former leader, Vladimir Putin, to seek the seat ahead of scheduled 2012 elections.
As the law stands now, a president can serve two back-to-back four-year terms but then must step down. However, the law does not prohibit him from running again after that.
Why change the law? In it’s statement, the Kremlin says
Establishing a longer term of office for the President with respect to State Duma deputies speaks to the need to ensure the stable development of the country and the continuity of government policies. The achievement of this goal is rendered more difficult when there is a virtually complete turnover of power at the federal level every four years.
If that were the case here, six years might help the president. A president could focus on the country for about 4 1/2 years (if future elections are anything like this election has been) before focusing on re-election. That might help, indeed, stabilize developments.
What do you think? Would the same ruler for six years work in America? Should there be other limits/modifcations to current term rules?
Tags: president, Russia, term limits
Bush feels the love from employees
November 7th, 2008 | Executive Office of the President Politics Transition White House | Posted by Tim Kauffman
With his approval ratings at historic lows and the nation’s focus shifting to the incoming Obama administration, President Bush has a tough time garnering much attention these days.
But hundreds of career and political employees who work at the Executive Office of the President gave Bush a rousing reception yesterday on the South Lawn of the White House. Flanked by his Cabinet and joined by First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and Cheney’s wife Lynne, Bush congratulated Barack Obama for winning the election and urged federal employees to make the transition to a new administration as smooth as possible.
Joking about his graying hair and First Dog Barney’s romps on the South Lawn, President Bush seemed at ease. He took time to shake hands with employees and even hug a few.
But he also said he intended to keep working for the American people right up until he hands over the keys to the White House on Jan. 20, and he encouraged federal employees to do the same.
As January 20th draws near, some of you may be anxious about finding a new job, or a new place to live. I know how you feel. But between now and then, we must keep our attention on the task at hand — because the American people expect no less. Earlier this year, I promised that I would sprint to the finish. I am keeping that promise, and I know I have given some of you a good workout along the way. As we head into this final stretch, I ask you to remain focused on the goals ahead. I will be honored to stand with you at the finish line.
Tags: Barack Obama, President Bush