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Understatement of the day, from NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, on the agency's stunning technological ability to pinpoint and document all of the problems that it can't seem to fix on the space shuttle: "The cameras worked well. The foam did not."

This just in: OPM will not butt out of the effort to develop the National Security Personnel System.

Army officials at Camp Edwards have discovered that lead-free "green bullets," made from nylon and tungsten and used on shooting ranges in an effort to prevent pollution of the aquifer underneath the base, may not be better for the environment after all.

For a case study in staying on message, check out the FBI's press release about the new IG report that concluded that "key deficiencies remain in the FBI’s foreign language translation program." The first paragraph in the release says, "the OIG commented on the improvements to our program, to include the finding that 'none of the counterterrorism audio backlog as of March 2005 was in the highest priority cases.' " The second paragraph adds that "there are no backlogs in our highest priority cases." And just in case the point wasn't clear yet, the third paragraph notes that the "report illustrates that there are no backlogs in our highest priority cases." Got it. Thanks.

Members of the Army's Special Forces units get highly specialized training in unconventional warfare. Now they're also being trained in "adaptive thinking, negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership within cross-cultural settings"--via a computer game developed with the help of Sandia National Laboratories.

If you've been reading GovExec today, you know that last night the House passed landmark legislation to overhaul postal operations. The bill sailed through, but without, sadly, one proposed amendment, submitted by Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, and summarized by the House Rules Committee this way: "Expresses the sense of Congress that a commemorative stamp should be issued by the Postal Service honoring Dean Martin, and that the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee should recommend to the Postmaster General that such a stamp be issued." (Thanks to postalnews.com for the link.)

The Post's Chris Lee throws a barb at White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card today, noting that he used an appearance at a Partnership for Public Service event on attracting young people to the civil service as an opportunity to tell interns that the best place to look for work is in the private sector. Apparently Card was trying to forestall a feared mass migration of all U.S. employees into the federal sector. "Our economy would not do very well if people just worked for the government," he said. So if that was anyone's plan, just stop thinking about it right now.

As the Excellence in Government conference winds down, I didn't want to forget to mention the dinner Monday night marking the 10th anniversary of the conference. Various reformers of the past decade were feted at the event, including key officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Just listening to these people talk about each other and their achievements, it became clear that improving federal management is as bipartisan an issue as you'll ever find. You can question the specific policies and tactics of the people who take on the task of leading reform efforts, but it's very hard to question their motives. They are deeply committed to making government work better, and united in the knowledge that this kind of work can only be done for its own sake, because it will never lead to any personal glory.

Just when NASA finally gets the space shuttle off the ground again, somebody has another bone to pick with the agency. The National Research Council says that NASA needs to be more meticulous in its grooming habits. If the spacecraft we send to Mars aren't squeaky clean, the council argues in a new report, we might discover life on the Red Planet and not be able to prove we didn't just bring it there ourselves.

I'm back at Excellence in Government. I listened to a group of managers this morning talk about retirement and career planning issues, and it became clearer than ever that government is heading for, as one participant put it, "chaos." A whole crop of Civil Service Retirement System employees are reaching retirement age, and debating when to break out of the golden handcuffs that system provides. (In many cases, managers and executives are desperately trying to hold on to these experienced workers even as they reach retirement eligibility, out of concern for brain drain issues.) Meanwhile, Federal Employees Retirement System employees are beginning to contemplate retirement, too, and they have a whole different set of financial planning issues to weigh. While all this is going on, agencies are cutting the ranks of HR staffers who have traditionally provided, or at least arranged for, retirement planning guidance. And on top of this, most, if not all, of the government, is on a path toward implementing entirely new personnel systems. It sure looks like a prescription for confusion and turmoil on a massive scale.

We interrupt this string of conference reports to bring you the following (before we forget): Don't miss the Sunday NY Times Magazine report this week on Chimp Haven, the government's new retirement home for chimpanzees--most of whom were used for NASA projects or federally funded medical research. The chimps' quarters come "complete with fresh running water and cross-ventilation, multiple windows and skylights, hammocks made of neatly crosshatched sections of used fire hose, bedding of warm blankets and hay, vanity mirrors, as well as a TV, a VCR and DVD and CD players."

It was standing room only at the Excellence in Government session that just ended on the DHS and DoD personnel systems. OPM's Ron Sanders set the stage, saying the departments' systems performance-based pay systems were set to "emerge from the primordial ooze." The audience was, as you can imagine, skeptical of the new approach. The speakers, DHS's Todd Turner and DoD's Charles Abell, looked like they were used to that kind of reaction. They made it clear that their biggest challenge was selling employees on the notion that their managers would actually be trained in how to set goals and standards before employee pay is tied to these objectives. The "common theme" from DHS employees, said Turner: "Is my manager skilled to do this?"

Abell noted that DHS's final regulations are "dangerously close to being finished," with publication due around Sept. 1. At that point, he said, the department will implement the labor relations portion of the new system immediately.

Both Turner and Abell continued to sell the notion that their departments need "flexibility," "nimbleness" and "agility" in human resources management because of the nature of their missions. This is a great way to push the urgency of reform at their departments, but it sure doesn't help the administration from selling the idea of governmentwide reform.

Almost forgot: Chertoff noted with amusement that music was played as he took the stage, and said that in the future he might request that the theme from "Rocky" be played before all of his appearances. Make of that what you will.

I'm back, and, as promised, coming to you live from Excellence in Government. It's not yet 11:00, and attendees have heard from two Cabinet secretaries already, so things are off to a pretty good start.

Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff certainly gave the impression of being obsessed with management issues--not the kind of thing you usually see in a Cabinet chief, and certainly not the case with his predecessor. (Two most frequently heard words in the speech: "structure" and "strategy.") Interesting points: Chertoff praised the work of those who set up the department, but his lengthy description of the need for an immediate "clean sheet" review of all DHS operations spoke for itself. He noted, tellingly, that more management initiatives developed as a result of the review will be coming in the months ahead.

Chertoff also turned a request from an audience member to describe the department's new MAX HR system into an opportunity to press for full funding for of the personnel overhaul. So unless the unions' lawsuit against the system is upheld, it looks like full speed ahead.

Chertoff also deftly deflected a question about why the department's chiefs of information technology, procurement and other functions have to report to an undersecretary for management, rather than Chertoff himself. He noted that he had 29 direct reports when he came on board, and that he didn't see adding more as an effective approach.

I've spent the better part of the past week going over the numbers for this year's edition of our annual Top 200 Federal Contractors issue. I don't want to give anything away before the issue comes out Aug. 15, but to put the numbers in perspective, think about this: If all of the $4.5 billion worth of coffee that Starbucks sold in the United States in the past year was purchased by federal agencies, that would barely be enough to put the company in the Top 10 contractors. And even if the folks at Starbucks managed to accomplish this feat, they’d have to sell an additional $20 billion worth of lattes and frappuccinos to approach the amount of money that Lockheed Martin takes in from Uncle Sam.

Your loyal Fedblogger is off again, this time to the great state of Minnesota. I'll be back on Monday, ready to liveblog at Excellence in Government. Until then, I'll update when and if I can.

How's this for a story? Army medic is shot in the chest by Iraqi sniper, pops right back up (thanks to body armor), helps his unit track down the shooter (who is wounded in the process), and then administers medical care to him. Read about it in Army Times, and check out the account from the 256th Brigade Combat Team. (Thanks to andrewsulllivan.com for the link.)

The National Parks Conservation says it's great that a dinosaur track was recently uncovered in Denali National Park, but not so great that the group's 2003 assessment concluded “funding is woefully inadequate to carry out needed research and protection” at the park. Denali received a “poor” rating for the condition of its cultural treasures, such as archaeological sites and museum collections.

Get ready for your Constitution lessons. The Post reports today on a measure, tucked into an appropriations bill last year, requiring that all executive branch employees receive training materials about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the holiday marking the day the document was signed in 1787. The provision was a pet project of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.

Memo to Defense Department public affairs officers: The boss says if you don't give reporters the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, well, then you're a traitor. From Donald Rumsfeld's op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal: "When a government official is found to have put out information that is not exactly correct or fully complete--even in good faith--it plays into the hands of our enemies, who seize on any fault to try to harm the American system."

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has really gone (or been driven, depending on how you look at it) around the bend in his hatred of the Interior Department. Last week, the Post noted some choice quotes in his latest opinion in the long-running dispute over the department's handling of billons on dollars in Indian trust fund money. To wit: "For those harboring hope that the stories of murder, dispossession, forced marches, assimilationist policy programs, and other incidents of cultural genocide against the Indians are merely the echoes of a horrible, bigoted government-past that has been sanitized by the good deeds of more recent history, this case serves as an appalling reminder of the evils that result when large numbers of the politically powerless are placed at the mercy of institutions engendered and controlled by a politically powerful few." And this one: "The entire record in this case tells the dreary story of Interior's degenerate tenure as Trustee-Delegate for the Indian trust, a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and outright villainy, the end of which is nowhere in sight." National Journal quotes another blast from the same opinion in this week's issue: "Perhaps Interior's leaders have been evil people, deriving their pleasure from inflicting harm on society's most vulnerable."

Interesting backstory to the recent report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had pulled off a raid targeting illegal immigrants working for Defense contractors at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C. The NY Times reported this weekend that the folks at OSHA are royally irritated that ICE rounded up the workers by telling them they had to attend an OSHA-mandated safety session. "This is not something we were involved in, and we do not condone the use of OSHA's name in this type of activity," Pam Groover, a spokeswoman for OSHA's parent organization, the Labor Department, told the paper. The United Food and Commercial Workers union isn't happy, either.

Members of Congress continue to fire every conceivable arrow in their quivers when it comes to trying to change the Pentagon's base-closing proposals. Friday, Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico teamed up to take issue with how the decision about Cannon Air Force Base in the state will be decided. The problem, the senators say, is that at least two members of the independent base closure commission might have to recuse themselves from voting on whether to close Cannon, because the vote could affect their home states. That means only seven of nine commissioners would be left to vote on the base's status, and five votes are needed to remove a facility from the closure list. Domenici and Bingaman say that's not fair, and (of course) they have suggestions for modifying the process--for example, by requiring only a simple majority vote to remove a base.

Only the best for our forward-deployed troops in Afghanistan. They were recently treated to the musical talents of ThundHerStruck, an "all-female AC/DC-tribute band" (according to the Pentagon's in-house news service ). Pfc. Brock Horner, a paratrooper with the oh-so-appropriately named Task Force Rock, reported that the show was "awesome."

A programming note: from July 25-27, I'll be blogging live from our Excellence in Government conference here in Washington. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, the speakers' lineup this year is very good (three Cabinet secretaries will be there--DHS's Michael Chertoff, VA's Jim Nicholson and USDA's Mike Johanns--and OPM's new chief, Linda Springer, will have her coming-out party), so there should be lots of interesting stuff going on. There's still time to register and be a part of it all.

Here's a public-private partnership for ya: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hooked up with a division of Procter & Gamble on a study showing--surprise, surprise--that handwashing can dramatically reduce the rate of infections among children under five. The study, conducted in Pakistan, found a 50 percent reduction in pneumonia-related infections. Pneumonia is the leading killer of children under five worldwide.

Boy, Michael Chertoff really knows how to cut loose with a zinger, doesn't he? Actual quotes from his announcement yesterday on Homeland Security reorganization:

• "Modest but essential course corrections regarding organization will yield big dividends."


• "We as a nation must make tough choices about how to invest finite human and financial capital to attain the optimal state of preparedness."


• "We must set a clear national strategy, and design an architecture in which separate roles and responsibilities for security are fully integrated among public and private stakeholders."

Gerold Yonas, former chief scientist for the Strategic Defense Initiative and current head of the Advanced Concepts Group at Sandia National Laboratory, has a new dream, according to this Slate profile: building the perfect golf ball.

In advance of contract negotiations with air traffic controllers next week, the FAA fired a shot across the bow of the controllers union yesterday, issuing a report concluding that labor costs account for 80 percent of the agency's operating budget and that the first three years of the 1998 labor contract cost five times more than initially projected, as "total controller compensation ballooned from $1.4 billion to nearly $2.4 billion." The least subtle line in the press release touting the report noted that controllers are "already among the highest paid civil servants."

Following a probe by the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division, former ESPN reporter Adrian K. Karsten was sentenced to 11 months in prison and nine months of home confinement for failing to file tax returns in 2000 and 2002, the Justice Department announced.

In the wake of severe criticism about distributing aid after last year's hurricanes in Florida to people who really didn't need it, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is reacting to Hurricane Dennis in about the way you'd expect: By taking its time distributing aid, to make sure it's not getting ripped off. So says a report in the News-Press, a southwest Florida newspaper. Start the clock now: How far are we away from the first congressional press conference lamenting FEMA's slow response?

Now that conspiracy theorist and distorter of history Oliver Stone is set to direct a feature film about the 9/11 attacks, it's worth noting what he had to say shortly after the attacks about how he'd handle such a film, according to a report in The New Yorker: "You show the Arab side and the American side in a chase film with a 'French Connection' urgency, where you track people by satellite, like in 'Enemy of the State.' My movie would have the C.I.A. guys and the F.B.I. guys, but they blow it. They're a bunch of drunks from World War II who haven't recovered from the disasters of the sixties—the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam. My movie would show the new heroes of security, the people who really get the job done, who know where the secrets are." (Thanks to Kausfiles for the link.)

The Energy Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency have joined forces in a new crusade: to get you to stop wasting so damn much energy.

USA Today picks up a piece from the Christian Science Monitor today on the maddeningly slow process of getting first responder funding out to communities. Since 9/11, more than $7 billion have been appropriated for emergency response, but only a little more than $1.2 billion has actually gotten out to the field. Meanwhile, the Senate is still squabbling over the first responder grant funding formula.

The group Citizens Against Government Waste has hit Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., with a double whammy in giving her its "Porker of the Month" award. A Hooley amendment to the House-approved fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill, the group noted, would add $9 million to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which has been rated "ineffective" [actually "Results Not Demonstrated," see update below] under the Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool effort. Where does Hooley's amendment get the money for the drug program? By cutting funds for the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the PART process.

Update: Turns out the CAGW folks were wrong about the HIDTA program rating. It's "Results Not Demonstrated," not "Ineffective." Big difference, and one I should've checked on before I posted the above item.

I guess this is what happens when you decide to get out of the space shuttle business. NASA has issued a formal request for expressions of interest from companies in using the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But Donald Trump shouldn't start getting any ideas about landing his private jet at the facility. NASA specifically says that "uses that can be readily accommodated at nearby airports, such as executive aircraft flights and conventional commercial passenger aircraft flights, will not be considered."

Nina Olsen, the IRS's national taxpayer advocate, hit the agency right between the eyes Friday, saying its "explicit and primary focus on increasing its enforcement activity," while "laudable," is also "very narrow.” The IRS, Olsen said, "should specifically state that its primary organizational goal is to increase voluntary compliance." And so the never-ending pendulum at the tax agency continues to swing.

In a stunning scientific breakthrough recorded in the Journal of Polymer Science B (Physics), scientists at Sandia National Laboratory, in work supported by the Energy Department's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, have used the Interfacial Force Microscope to achieve some of the first consistent measurements of the qualities of...Silly Putty.

Tim Naftali of the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs makes the case in Slate that Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff should've left the terror alert level alone yesterday and just told Americans to tough it out. I'll admit to some eye-rolling after hearing that DHS was once again issuing an after-the-fact alert uptick, on the grounds that it just makes it look like the federal government gets its information about potential threats the same way the rest of us do--from CNN. But I'll give Chertoff this much: at least he couched the raised alert level in terms of fear of a copycat attack, which has some validity.

Ever wonder how illegal immigrants blend into U.S. society and the American economy? Some of them find work as defense contractors.

I guess if we don't do stuff like this, then the terrorists win: the Defense Department has announced that a "Military Idol" competition, based on the hit Fox TV show, will begin Aug. 1.

Newsday Columnist James Pinkerton (anybody remember him from "New Paradigm" fame before reinventing government became all the rage?) opined yesterday that conservatives who are cheering the further decline of the "liberal media establishment" occasioned by the jailing of NY Times reporter Judith Miller ought to think twice. They may soon learn, he wrote, that "the ultimate enemy of freedom is the unchecked power of the state."

The National Counterterrorism Center may be struggling to define exactly what constitutes an act of terrorism, but by any definition, today's events in London sure look like they fit the bill.

The State Department has set up an emergency phone line for people to report any information about Americans hurt or missing in London. People with information should call 1-888-407-4747.

The Washington Times today explores just how far contractors and the Defense Department are pushing the whole civilians on the battlefield thing in Iraq. The fact that nobody seems to know just how many contractors are in the country is pretty scary. We are in seriously uncharted waters here, and I can't help feeling that we haven't seen the worst stories yet.

Just a reminder that I'll be chatting live at noon ET today about whatever's on your mind. Go here to ask your questions. Don't worry, I can take it.

The American Federation of Government Employees has its own take on the VA budget crisis, and--what a shocker!--it's very different from that of the Textile Rental Services Association (see "Dirty Laundry," Tuesday). All the VA needs to do is stop putting "millions of those precious, hard-to-come-by dollars into the hands of private management consultants," AFGE says.

AP reported this weekend on the growing problem with people from countries other than Mexico streaming across the southern border of the United States. I can't resist noting that GovExec's Chris Strohm was all over this story weeks ago, in a piece paving the way for his cover story in the July 1 issue of the magazine on border control agencies.

Many's the time federal workers have complained that in order to really make any money, they'd have to win the lottery. Well, several Federal Emergency Management Agency employees in West Virginia apparently have done just that: George Alter, a FEMA employee, says 15 of his co-workers hold the winning ticket for last week's $10 million Powerball lottery.

The Textile Rental Services Association has a suggestion for VA officials looking for cash to make up that embarassing $1 billion budget shortfall: Quit washing your own sheets. “I believe the private sector can save the [Veterans Health Administration] money on its laundry services,” said Michael Potack, the organization's chairman. “That, in turn, could enable the agency to reapply that revenue to veterans’ health care. It’s that simple.”

Great column by David Broder today on how when it comes to Iraq, Congress has asked the Bush administration to do what it regularly demands of federal agencies: set reasonable performance goals and report on progress toward achieving them. The Defense Department has until July 11 to respond. It'll be very interesting to see what they come up with, and whether Congress demands that the president commit to applying the principles of performance measurement to Iraq on a regular basis.

I thought all I had to fear from the anti-Atkins diet that I tend to follow is an expanding waistline. Now those good folks at the Agricultural Research Service say the real problem is that I could go blind! (Of course, their study only included women--maybe us guys will luck out.)

Colin Powell is still showing why he was just about the most popular Secretary of State ever among the department's employees. From his remarks yesterday at a ceremony marking the kickoff of the Powell Fellows program, designed to develop future leaders of the Foreign Service and civil service: "In my career, I was a White House Fellow, which is a little bit like this, where I was essentially pulled up out of the day-to-day business of being a lieutenant colonel in the Army and suddenly sitting in the White House trying to make sense of how all that worked. It is some 30-odd years later and occasionally I had the same experience -- try to figure out how government works at the most senior level, even when you are in government at the most senior level, because government is challenging, bureaucracies are challenging. What makes it all work are gifted leaders, gifted people, gifted leaders who understand that it isn't just leadership at the seventh and eighth floors, it's leadership everywhere throughout the department."