GovernmentExecutive.com

Over the years, many readers of Government Executive and users of GovernmentExecutive.com have told us that they'd really like to get handy direct access to news articles that feature the agency where they work. We're happy to address that need with our new feature, News By Agency. It provides an agency-by-agency breakdown of recent news coverage on our site. Just click on the link to your agency and bookmark it for future reference.

We weren't able to feature every single agency, due to limits on our capacity to report and upload news articles, but we've got as many as we could cover.

This is just the begining for this feature: In the coming months, look for us to build out each agency's page with links to news articles from other sources and additional content.

I'm off to the great state of Minnesota next week, so Fedblog's taking a little break. I'll be back in the saddle July 7.

Here's wishing everybody an early happy Fourth of July!

Not to toot our own horn or anything, but Government Executive has had what I think is an unusual amount of access to the Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in recent years. So if you're interested in what he has in mind for the Defense Department, check out our special report on Mullen, which includes links to video of his appearances at our Leadership Breakfasts, magazine profiles and recent news articles.

I guess this is the federal equivalent of finding some spare change in the couch cushions -- a lot of spare change. The Transportation Administration has collected more than $1 million in coins left by passengers in plastic bins at airport screening stations around the country since October 2004, USA Today reports.

Los Angeles International Airport was the runaway leader in coin collecting, taking in nearly $90,000 from Sept. 30, 2004, to Oct. 1, 2007. By contrast, pennywise travelers at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport left behind only a total of $1.20 last year.

TSA gets to keep the money, rather than turn it in to the Treasury, to help cover the costs of airport security. I'm sure most travelers are happy to fill the agency's tip jar. Right?

Weird story in the Politico today, headlined "John McCain doesn't work weekends." Setting aside the issue of whether that somehow constitutes a character flaw, it raises the question of exactly what the senator does with all his free time. The answer, the paper reports, is hosts reporters and donors at his Arizona cabin, guest-hosts "Saturday Night Live" and visits troops in Iraq and at Walter Reed hospital. Also, he takes time to "bone up on policy, and meet privately with aides, advisers, contributors and other prominent officials."

Evidently that doesn't count as work, because, according to the story, it doesn't "capture media attention." And that tells you about all you need to know about the state of our presidential campaigning process, and the way it is covered.

We've had eight years of the President's Management Agenda piled on eight years of reinventing government. So when it comes to the issue of making sure that government can deliver on its promise of faithfully executing the laws and policies set by Congress and the president, the question is, now what?

The Public Manager has stepped into the void on that question with a special issue devoted to "a management agenda for the next president." It's an ambitious effort, based on a series of seminars in which a series of experts in federal management discussed acquisition, execution, human resources and technology issues. Click here to download the full issue.

My colleague Allan Holmes has blogged about the issue over at Nextgov.

It's an age-old story: Federal employee testifies at a congressional hearing (or appears at a press conference or is quoted by a news organization), and suddenly allegations of misconduct by the employee appear out of nowhere and he or she becomes the target of an agency investigation.

Three members of Congress -- Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va. -- say that's what happened after FBI agent Bassem Youssef testified May 21 before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security. The Washington Times reports today that the lawmakers have sent a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller saying that after Youssef told panel members about the effects of vacancies in the FBI unit that tracks al Qaeda members, he "was informed by his supervisor that unknown accusers had claimed he violated various FBI rules and regulations."

Scott, the subcommittee's chairman, said that if the FBI has retaliated against Youssef for his testimony before Congress, that would be "more than disturbing -- if true, it is criminal."

Want to plan some three-day weekend getaways for the next decade or so? The Office of Personnel Management has helpfully provided a complete list of federal holidays through 2020.

While we're at it, we might as well start the debate now: Christmas falls on a Thursday this year. Will President Bush give federal employees Friday the 26th off, too, as a parting gesture? History says yes.

Attention federal agencies already daunted by the prospect of meeting the requirements of President Bush's mandate to reduce energy consumption: Both Barack Obama and John McCain are looking to one-up the president.

The Washington Post reports today on McCain's speech yesterday on energy policy, in which he proposed to further reduce the government's consumption. Among the specific proposals: Buy nothing but flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or clean natural gas-powered cars for the federal fleet from here on out, and retrofit federal buildings with green technology.

Obama already has released his own plan to make new federal buildings 40 percent more efficient than current ones within five years, to boost the efficiency of existing buildings by 25 percent over the same period and to make sure government gets 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Of course, agencies have had their own green initiatives under way for years. David Bibb, the General Services Administration's acting administrator, has launched a "Summer of Green" tour of the country to highlight his agency's effort to push green procurement and policies. Among the facts he's touting: GSA already has helped agencies purchase more than 131,000 alternative fuel vehicles.

Government Executive will take a comprehensive look at how agencies across government are making efforts to go green in our August issue.

One of the government's most experienced acquisition professionals has found a new home in the private sector. Compusearch, a provider of specialized acquisition and grants management software for federal agencies, announced Tuesday that Deidre A. Lee will join the firm as director of all its operations serving defense and intelligence agencies.

Lee has served as director of acquisition at the Federal Emergency Management Agency since April 2006. Prior to that, she had a brief stint as an assistant commissioner at the General Services Administration. She's also held a variety of other senior procurement positions throughout her three decades in government, including director of defense procurement at the Pentagon, associate administrator for procurement at NASA and head of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy during the Clinton administration.

“I look forward to applying my government experience through industry to help build a more effective and efficient government that better meets America’s needs," Lee said.

The Border Patrol has more than 16,000 agents, and is in a frenzied rush to get to 18,000 by the end of the year. But its ranks include only 158 African Americans -- and only eight of them are black women.

It's not surprising, then, that the New York Times reports that the agency has launched an effort to reach out to blacks, especially in the South. A recruiting team has signed up more than 400 applicants since January, but since the application process is fairly involved, it's hard to tell how many of them actually will end up joining the ranks -- which is a depressing thought, because even if all of them did, the agency's numbers still would be abysmal.

(Hat tip: Matthew Yglesias)

The Associated Press reports today that folks in the Midwest have nice things to say about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to the floods that have devastated the region.

"I think they've made a world of improvement both in terms of their preparedness and in terms of their attitude," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "My sense is they are no longer thinking they can deliver disaster relief from a cubicle in Virginia and are fully engaged on the ground."

Of course, if you've been reading Government Executive in the past few months, the news that FEMA is on the mend won't come as a surprise to you.

How should you respond if campaign staffers for John McCain or Barack Obama contact your agency seeking information? The National Institutes of Health has helpfully posted a link to a memo from Fred Fielding, counsel to the president, on this subject.

Here's the short version: There are a whole lot of restrictions on such contacts. It pays to read the full memo about them.

But if you just want to hang out with a buddy who works for one of the candidates, have no fear. The policy outlined in the memo "is not intended to prevent incidental, social or personal contacts between federal employees in their private capacities and any of their acquaintances who happen to be campaign organization personnel," Fielding writes.

(Hat tip: IEC Journal)

What are the scientists and and engineers of tomorrow doing today? NASA thinks they might be getting psyched up about this guy:

That, in case you've missed all the ads and movie trailers, is WALL-E, star of the Disney-Pixar movie opening next week that bears his name. The agency has signed an agreement with Disney to conduct a series of educational and public outreach activities around the movie. The idea is to show kids that NASA does "real-life work in robot technology, propulsion systems and astrophysics."

WALL-E will be showing up on public service announcements on the agency's TV channels, and will appear on its Web site.

Here's the latest effort to crack down on aggressive driving: The Telegraph reports that the city of Philadelphia is painting phony speed bumps on city streets in an effort to get people to slow down.

Cool idea, but it will only work the first time anybody sees one of these, right? Regular drivers will quickly learn to drive as fast as they want over the images. How effective can that be? That's what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will attempt to find out. It'll be collecting data on the roads emblazoned with the fake bumps to see if they actually make roads safer.

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Bruce Blackistone spends his days arranging leased space for the National Park Service -- that is the days when he isn't out on the waterways of the Washington area in the guise of his alter ego, Atli, captain of the Sae Hrafn, or Sea Raven, a reconstructed Viking ship.

The Washington Post reports today on Blackistone and his comrades -- several of them also federal employees -- who have formed the Longship Company, an educational organization dedicated to spreading the word about the Vikings.

One of the best things about the story is the headline: "Tales of the GS-12 Vikings."

On the wall behind my desk, I have a poster called "Death and Taxes: A Visual Guide to Where Your Federal Tax Dollars Go." A year ago, Karen Rutzick wrote about the poster and the Jess Bachman, the guy who created it, in a piece in Government Executive.

Karen reported that Bachman's success in designing and selling the posters had enabled him to quit his job in retail. Now, BoingBoing reports, business is doing even better. In an e-mail to BoingBoing blogger Xeni Jardin, Bachman writes:

As a full time (well, almost full time) budget poster maker, I was able to develop the 2008 version of the poster along with the website TheBudgetGraph.com which has had over 1/2 million visits. Sales from the poster now support me and my family, and I have sold thousands of posters to schools and concerned citizens, even 40 members of congress. I have been in magazines, art galleries, and national television. Last month I was on the Martha Stewart Show to talk about the poster and taxes, it was surreal.

And now the 2009 edition is out.

One of the characteristics of modern American government is an increasing reliance on self-policing approaches by regulatory agencies. That's partly a result of new thinking about effective forms of regulation, and partly due to resource constraints that prevent agencies from engaging in a wide range of enforcement activities in a growing American economy.

But there's been relatively little evaluation of whether the new techniques actually work. Now Michael W. Toffel of Harvard Business School and Jodi L. Short the Georgetown University Law Center have stepped into the breach with a research paper looking at a self-policing program run by the Environmental Protection Agency. Their conclusions:

We find that on average, facilities that committed to self-police experienced a decline in abnormal events resulting in toxic pollution, and that regulators reduced their scrutiny over self-policing facilities. Upon closer examination, we find strong evidence of these effects among facilities with clean past compliance records, but find no such evidence of among facilities with more problematic compliance histories. These findings support the theoretical promise of meaningful self-policing practices and suggest that voluntary disclosure can serve as a reliable signal of future compliance—but only among a subset of facilities.

Last year, the New York Times reported that the oldest Freedom of Information Act request pending at a federal agency was a 1987 Church of Scientology filing at the State Department. Now comes word from the Project on Government Oversight that a federal court has ordered the IRS to comply with a judge's order dating back to 1976 requiring the agency to provide information under a FOIA request about its enforcement activities.

I guess this doesn't count as an older request than the Scientology example, since the IRS apparently had been providing the information in one form or another for many years. But under the Bush administration, the agency began withholding large amounts of enforcement data.

Five hundred and sixty-six bucks: That's the median amount of money received by federal employees who got bonuses last year, according to the Asbury Park Press. And only 106,000 of 1.2 million federal workers got some sort of merit award. That adds up to an incentive system that doesn't exactly provide a lot of incentives, analysts told the paper.

"The [federal] bonus system is very small," said Carl Van Horn, director of a labor policy center at Rutgers University. "Often, it's not significant relative to what these people are doing. It's like an 'attaboy.' "

Danger Room has uncovered what it calls the "strangest Iraq contract yet": The military wants to hire somebody to account for, inventory, and store the personal property of detainees held by coalition forces in the country.

That may not sound like a very big job, but with 60,000 people already in custody -- and another 15,000 expected to be detained in the coming months -- we're talking about a lot of stuff. The contractor's job will be to keep track of everything and sort out how much of the property already stored in warehouses belongs to "released, deceased, unknown, or escaped detainees."

Was the the flag flying over the building you work in made in the U.S.A.? Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, wants to make sure it was, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Last week, in honor of Flag Day, he introduced legislation that would require the federal government to buy only American-made flags.

Right now, only the flags purchased for use with veterans' caskets must be made in America and made from completely American materials. (Under the Buy America Act of 1933, most flags and other goods purchased by agencies must be made up of at least 50 percent American materials.) According to the Census Bureau, $4.7 million worth of American flags were imported from other countries last year, including $4.3 million from China.

Transportation Security Administration officers are about to get a new accessory for their uniforms: badges like those used by police officers. The idea, USA Today reports, is to make sure TSA's officers get the respect the agency thinks they deserve.

But police officers' organizations aren't very happy about the move -- especially those who work at airports. They think it will just sow seeds of confusion about who the real cops are and create the impression that baggage screeners can handle crimes.

Screeners won't be able to wear the badges until they complete a two-day training course on the implications of projecting the new sense of authority -- including instruction on how to communicate calmly with passengers.

David Bibb, the acting administrator of the General Services Administration, has found a new chief acquisition officer for the agency: Ted Haddad, a Senior Executive Service member who has served in the Office of the Chief Acquisition Officer since last year. Before that, Haddad had an extensive career in the government contracting industry and served as an acquisition executive for the Air Force in the early 1990s.

The GSA job came open when Molly Wilkinson departed to join the Small Business Administration earlier this year. Since then, David Drabkin has filled the job on an acting basis.

"University Faculty and Students to 'RockOn!' With NASA"

This just in from the Office of Personnel Management:

Some areas of the Washington Metropolitan area are under a power outage. Each department or agency has discretion to excuse employees from their duties without loss of pay or charge to leave.

Anybody have any more details on that?

Here's the best thing I've read in a long time: Apparently at a conference this week in Boston, two CIA officials, in the course of a presentation on Intellipedia, made reference to a World War II-era manual on sabotage techniques published by the CIA's predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services.

The manual not only details techniques for stuff like setting fires and damaging industrial equipment, it suggests ways to sabotage ordinary operations of enemy offices by making it difficult or impossible to get things done. But some of the suggestions sound suspiciously like the way some modern federal offices run on a regular basis. Just check out these excerpts:

(a) Organizations and Conferences

(1) Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable"
and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

(b) Managers and Supervisors

(1) Demand written orders.
(2) "Misunderstand" orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can. ...
(7) Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. ...
(10) To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
(11.) Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
(12) Multiply paper work in plausible ways. Start duplicate files.
(13) Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.
(14) Apply all regulations to the last letter.

(c) Office Workers

(1)Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.
(2) Prolong correspondence with government bureaus.
(3) Misfile essential documents.
(4) In making carbon copies, make one too few, so that an extra copying job will have to be done.
(5) Tell important callers the boss is busy or talking on another telephone.
(6) Hold up mail until the next collection.
(7) Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope.

(d) Employees

(1) Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job ...
(4) Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. ...
(6) Never pass on your skill and experience to a new or less skillful worker.
(7) Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.
(8) If possible, join or help organize a group for presenting employee problems to the management. See that the procedures adopted are as inconvenient as possible for the management, involving the presence of a large number of employees at each presentation, entailing more than one meeting for each grievance, bringing up problems which are largely imaginary, and so on. ...

(Hat tip: JOHO the Blog, via BoingBoing)

The Chief Human Capital Officers Council celebrated its fifth anniversary Tuesday with a luncheon at the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Room. The celebration included remarks by Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer and CHCO Council Director John Salamone as well as a video presentation featuring CHCOs and members of Congress.

Salamone touched on some of the successes of the council since its inception, including the creation of human capital guidance for use during emergency situations, development of the Human Resources Line of Business, and a collective effort to reform the federal hiring process.

Particularly during a presidnetial transition, Springer said, "one of the things we're most proud of with the council is that half of the CHCOs are career officials. … I want to thank all of you for a great five years, with good wishes and hopes for the next five to come." --Brittany R. Ballenstedt

The American Federation of Government Employees has won a battle in its ongoing war against an Air Force requirement that civilian air reserve technicians (who must join the military reserves as a condition of employment) wear uniforms on the job. An arbitrator has ruled that Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri violated its contract with AFGE Local 2361 by implementing the policy.

"While uniforms may improve consistent appearance, cohesion and other long-term military goals," the arbitrator ruled, "they also can generate lower short-term morale and predicate consequential military behavior on a civilian workforce.”

Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, doesn't think much of the gifts officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have given to their agents. The presents, handed out in connection with training programs, were Leatherman tool kits engraved with the words "Always Think Forfeiture." Agency officials said the idea was to raise awareness of the Asset Forfeiture Program, under which agents can confiscate private property in connection with criminal investigations.

But Sali thought the motto sent the wrong message. "Americans have a right to keep and bear arms," he said. "We have a right to private property. But ATF, through its engraved motto, sends a message that these rights are secondary to the government’s apparent goal to 'always' seek forfeit of private property."

Faced with Sali's criticism, ATF backed down and said it would stop handing out the tools. Sali says he'll make sure they can't in the future, either, by introducing legislation to that effect.

(Hat tip: Reason Hit and Run, via BoingBoing)

Paul Light was in fine form this morning at an event at the National Academy of Public Administration to promote his new book, A Government Ill Executed.

In the federal sector, he noted, "breakdowns are coming at greater veolcity." And Light is convinced they're going to get worse, in the absence of actions to fix government's ills -- which he pegs, among other issues, as mission creep at agencies, a top-heavy chain of command, and excessive delays in the political confirmation process.

What intrigued me most was Light's suggestion that Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama -- both of whom he characterized as good-government advocates -- ought to team up prior to the election on pieces of legislation aimed at such goals as reducing the number of political appointees and streamlining the appointments process. It would be interesting indeed to see pressure put on the two senators to back measures that would benefit either of them if elected.

What Light said he didn't want to see was another president with a marquee management reform program, like "reinventing government" or the "president's management agenda." I'm crusade-weary as well at this point, but in the absence of these kinds of rallying cries, I wonder if a president would be able to garner any support for a coherent, sustained effort to fix the kind of systemic problems Light has detailed.

Let's face it: Reading information provided by federal agencies about how they have performed relative to the metrics they have set out for themselves can be a little dull. Now officials at the Office of Management and Budget want to take one last shot at convincing agencies to spruce up their reports.

Yesterday, OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson sent a memo to top management officials at agencies announcing that OMB will continue a pilot project launched last year to "explore different formats to enhance the presentation of financial and performance information." Under the program, officials are encouraged to use "innovative technology" to make their reports more accessible to readers and to provide "evidence backing up claims" about agency performance.

Eleven agencies participated in the pilot project last year and OMB hopes more will join the list this time around. Under the newly revised version of the pilot, they will produce:

• A two-page summary providing a quick snapshot of agency results.


• A 25-page Citizens’ Report, with more comprehensive information on the agency's mission, goals, spending, performance and future plans.


• A bigger accountability report with "exhaustive and complete details on relevant financial and performance data."
  
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Over the past several years, it has become common for provisions to be slipped into spending bills to limit the Bush administration's ability to put federal jobs up for competition with private firms. But the granddaddy of all such measures, according to the Local 3354 of the American Federation of Government Employees, was one preventing the privatization of the jobs of 6,000 federal employees who work in Agriculture Department offices across the nation.

That provision has had to be reintroduced every year since 2003 in annual USDA funding bills. But now, the union brags, the measure has been enshrined in the recent massive farm bill that Congress enacted after overriding President Bush's veto. That means those jobs have to remain federal permanently -- or until somebody can garner the votes to put them back on the block.

You can't accuse the National Treasury Employees Union of making premature presidential endorsements. The union announced Tuesday that it "strongly endorses" Barack Obama's candidacy. The move comes after Obama wrapped up the Democratic nomination earlier this week. His chief opponent, Hillary Clinton, is apparently set to endorse Obama herself on Saturday.

“It is crucial that federal employees support the election of a president who values and understands the work they perform,” NTEU president Colleen M. Kelley said. “Sen. Obama will be that president. He has earned our endorsement by his respect and support of federal employees and the work they do for our country.” Kelley also diplomatically noted that Clinton “is a good friend and strong advocate for federal employees."

NTEU's chief rival among federal labor unions, the American Federation of Government Employees, endorsed Obama last month.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., seems really, really concerned that U.S. interrogators be allowed to put panties on the heads of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It's hardly torture, he insisted -- eight times -- during a House hearing Wednesday.

Reporters helped burnish the FBI's image in its early days, then gradually developed a more complicated love-hate relationship with the agency. The Newseum is going to explore that relationship in a new exhibit called "G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI's First Century."

The specifics of the exhibit -- from the Unabomber's cabin to John Dillinger's death mask -- look pretty intriguing.

The House voted today to approve the Senior Executive Service Diversity Act (H.R. 3774), which would create a new executive diversity office within the Office of Personnel Management.

The bill passed on a voice vote.

The measure would create a Senior Executive Service Resource Office in OPM to promote efforts to diversify the SES. The legislation also would require agencies to develop their own SES diversity plans.

The group Federally Employed Women praised the House action. “We have been working on this issue for many years,” said the organization's president, Rhonda Trent. “We are so happy to see it come to fruition and urge the Senate to follow suit and approve the measure."

The finalists for the 2008 Innovations in American Government Awards have been unveiled -- and few of them, it turns out, are from the federal government.

The 15 finalists were announced Tuesday by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School. They include state, local, and tribal programs ranging from a fresh food financing initiative in Pennsylvania to a teacher residency program in the Boston Public School District.

But only two of the finalists came from federal agencies:

• The Global Maritime Domain Awareness program at the Department of Transportation, a low-cost, rapidly deployable, vessel traffic monitoring system.


• The Intelligence Community Civilian Joint Duty Program, requiring intelligence professionals to complete assignments outside their agency to achieve executive rank.

The finalists, selected from a pool of almost 1,000 applicants, will make a case for themselves before an awards selection committee on June 12. Eventually, six winners will get $100,000 each to spread the word about their achievements.

Since the tagline of this blog is "outside the bureaucracy looking in," I can't resist passing along this story from my colleague Kellie Lunney about her experience today as a taxpayer interacting with the IRS:

So, the IRS sends me this letter yesterday saying that I miscalculated my student loan interest deduction in 2007 and that I actually owe them $236 extra plus $1.87 in interest since April 15. Turns out that my return was accurate and they made some inexplicable mistake. So, I don’t owe the extra $236. But I do owe Uncle Sam the $1.87 interest.

In effect, I owe interest on a sum of money that I never owed the government in the first place.

I said to the IRS person on the phone, “You do realize this is crazy?” And she says, “Well, this is my job and let me tell you, I see all kinds of craziness every day.”

It's the end of an era at the Council for Excellence in Government, with the announcement that president and CEO Patricia McGinnis will step down later this year.

The council has been around for 25 years, working to improve government's performance and engage the public in understanding the value of public service. McGinnis has been at the helm of the organization since 1994. The list of her accomplishments is long and varied, from revitalizing Public Service Recognition Week to creating the SAGE (Strategic Advisers to Government Executives) program. Government Executive has worked closely with McGinnis and her colleagues at the council on special projects and events, such as the Excellence in Government conference.

“I’m proud of our accomplishments, which are a tribute to the passion for public service, entrepreneurial spirit and insistence on results by our trustees, principals, staff and our many colleagues and partners in government and the private sector," said McGinnis in her announcement. "In this year of change and transition, the time seems right for new leadership at the council and for me to explore new ways to continue my work in the public interest.”

The council's board of trustees has formed a presidential search committee to find a successor to McGinnis. She'll stay at the helm until that person is found.

Stay tuned to GovernmentExecutive.com later this week for an interview with McGinnis about her accomplishments and her future.