A smoke-free outdoors?
November 20th, 2009 | Agencies Congress Facilities | Posted by Rebecca Neal
Rep. Eliot Engel is trying again to ban smoking near federal buildings.
The New York Democrat unsuccessfully introduced a bill during the last Congress to ban smoking within 25 feet of any federal building’s entrances, exits, windows that can be opened and ventilation intakes. Engel reintroduced the bill Nov. 18 to correspond with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smoke Out smoking-cessation campaign.
The Surgeon General reported in 2006 that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. One step we can take in limiting such exposure is to free the entrances of buildings of the clouds of smoke often found when smokers gather outside of entrances and exits. The problem with this is simple – how else are people going to avoid secondhand smoke when the only ways in and out of a building is blocked by smoke?”
The bill would clarify various levels of guidance involving smoking near federal buildings. The General Services Agency banned smoking in courtyards and within 25 feet of doorways at GSA-controlled buildings, effective June 19, 2009.
A 1997 executive order banned smoking in all Executive Branch buildings, as well as all inside space owned, rented or leased by the Executive Branch.
What say you, feds? Is smoking an annoyance at your workplace? Or are you a smoker that would be annoyed by any new regulations?
Tags: Congress, Facilities, GSA, Smoking
GSA merges Chief Acquisition and Governmentwide Policy Offices
August 11th, 2009 | General Services Administration | Posted by Elise Castelli
The General Services Administration is consolidating its Office of Governmentwide Policy and Office of the Chief Acquisition Officer, the agency will announce later today. The move comes one day after the agency appointed Michael Robertson to lead both offices.
Since the two offices share a common mission of developing procurement policies, merging them will better coordinate these efforts, improving the agency’s ability to manage taxpayer dollars, GSA said in a statement to Federal Times.
Senate stimulus: Fewer funds for feds
February 9th, 2009 | Agencies Economic Stimulus | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
A group of Republican and Democratic senators trimmed nearly $100 billion from the economic stimulus package over the last few days. Most economists say the cuts are a bad idea, because the smaller the stimulus bill, the less stimulative its effect on the economy. (Think of driving up an icy hill: If you’re not going fast enough, you slide back down.)
Federal managers might not like the cuts, either: The revised Senate stimulus plan eliminates billions of dollars that were allocated for federal agencies.
One of the biggest cuts will hurt the General Services Administration. The House stimulus bill gives GSA almost $7 billion to make federal buildings more energy-efficient. The Senate version cuts that in half — to $3.5 billion.
Other items cut from the Senate plan:
- $122 million for the Coast Guard’s new polar icebreakers;
- $200 million for new screening equipment for the Transportation Security Administration;
- $75 million from the Smithsonian, which the institution would have used for capital improvements (the House bill included $150 million);
- $200 million for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program;
- $200 million for the National Science Foundation;
- $1 billion for Head Start.
Tags: Coast Guard, GSA, Smithsonian, stimulus, TSA
Transition Watch: More Noontime Changes
January 19th, 2009 | Information Technology Transition White House | Posted by Elise Castelli
Change.gov will become WhiteHouse.gov just after noon tomorrow, according to Agence France-Presse.
Many believe Change.gov to be emblematic of how President-elect Barack Obama will use the Web to advance his priorities of a more participatory and transparent democracy.
Over the next few days other federal Web sites will also start to look a bit different as dozens of familiar names, like Michael Chertoff and Condoleezza Rice, are erased from government Web sites and replaced with the new administration officials, like Janet Napolitano or Hillary Clinton.
The process is likely to be quick, said Casey Coleman, chief information officer for the General Services Administration. GSA plans to have all the names of Bush-era political appointees off the agency’s site and replaced with acting career officials or Obama appointees within 48 hours of the inauguration. Many of the names will change a lot faster than that, she said.
With the exception of a Google Web cache, this may be the last time Bush-era agency appointees see their names on government Web sites. The National Archives and Records Administration will not do a Web harvest of pre-Obama sites, an agency spokeswoman said.
Instead, if an agency determines that its Bush-era Web pages must be persevered under NARA’s Guidance for Managing Web Records, the agency will follow the rules set out in this handy archiving guide.
This guidance, of course, does not apply to Bush’s WhiteHouse.gov, which falls under the Presidential Records Act.
Tags: Archives, GSA, Presidential Records Act, Web sites
Eureka! We found it!
November 12th, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Elise Castelli
So last week we wrote that the General Services Administration was keeping quiet on where President-elect Obama’s transition headquarters was located. Apparently the D.C. traffic department didn’t get the memo that it was being left to the transition team to reveal the hideout.
The Temporary Executive Office Building.
The District Department of Transportation released a detailed description of the location in a press release about traffic restrictions to protect the transition office. Here is what the DDOT had to say:
- D Street, NW between 5th and 6th is closed to vehicular traffic and parking is restricted.
- Northbound 6th Street St, NW, between Indiana Avenue and E Street, is reduced to one lane of traffic. The other 2 northbound lanes are blocked off.
- Indiana Avenue, NW, between 5th and 6th Streets, has been temporarily converted to accommodate two-way traffic until the traffic restrictions are lifted on D Street.
- No parking is allowed on the west side of 5th Street, NW, between Indiana Avenue and E Street.
- No parking is allowed in the curb lane on the south side of E Street, NW, between 5th and 6th Streets.
- The east side of 6th Street is closed to pedestrian traffic.
 What’s more, an intrepid worker in a nearby building snapped the above photo with his iPhone.
Tags: Barack Obama, GSA
Friday Fun Facts: Transition by the numbers.
November 7th, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Elise Castelli
As if the fact the General Services Administration is supplying 120,000 square feet of office space to house the Obama transition team isn’t evidence enough of the scale of the event, FedLine has more numbers for you to chew on.
The office space is outfitted with enough desks, computers, telephones, chairs and assorted other office supplies to support 500 people, said Gail Lovelace, GSA’s chief human capital officer, who is overseeing the transition. And Congress has appropriated $5.3 million to pay for it all.
Lovelace said the exact location of the office is still being kept under wraps because the Obama team has not given permission yet to release it. She noted they’ve been a little busy getting down to business.
At the same time GSA is helping the Obama-Biden administration transition into office, it is also helping the Bush-Cheney administration transition out. A team of GSA employees is working with the current administration to find post-administration office space, Lovelace said. That effort has $2.2 million appropriated for it.
Bonus fun fact: GSA provides lifetime support for former presidents.
Tags: Barack Obama, ex-presidents, Friday Fun, GSA
GSA's super-secret transition headquarters
November 5th, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Elise Castelli
The General Services Administration, which provides logistical support for the presidential transition team, turned over the keys to the 120,000 square foot office space it has leased for President-elect Obama’s team today. But GSA is remaining tight lipped about where the space is.Â
A press release issued by GSA just says the office space is somewhere in downtown D.C.
Yesterday, Diane Merriett, a GSA spokeswoman, refused to tell yours truly where the office was located, stating that GSA decided to leave it up to the president-elect’s team to release.Â
This FedLine found funny because the new boss is a transparency advocate. But old habits die hard.
Incidentally, Obama has announced his transition team today. We hope they like the new digs… wherever they are.
Tags: Barack Obama, GSA
Other duties as assigned: pick president
October 23rd, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Elise Castelli
Many jobs in federal government have what are lovingly termed “other duties as assigned.” But acting General Services Administration chief Jim Williams has discovered that his “other duties” may be the most important of all.
In a speech during the GEIA Vision Conference today, Williams mentioned that one little known duty of his office is to declare an apparent winner of the presidential election on Nov. 4.
Since the Electoral College won’t meet to officially declare a president-elect until Dec. 15, GSA needs to name an apparent winner so the agency can move forward quickly with its transition duties in the slim 77-day time period between Nov. 4 and Jan. 20, Williams said.
 From my perspective I don’t care who wins. I just don’t want it to be close, because the administrator has to pick a winner and hand over the keys and say ‘Let’s get started.’
Tags: election, GSA, Jim Williams