http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/ Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy. en Copyright 2009 Fri,20 Nov 2009 18:16:03 GMT http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I was reading through OPM Director John Berry's speech at the Human Capital Management Forum yesterday, and while most of it's his fairly standard stump speech, two things stood out to me. First, Berry said: Next, before the year is... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/two_interesting_things_from_op.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/two_interesting_things_from_op.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Fri,20 Nov 2009 18:16:03 GMT I'm glad to hear the Postal Service's Letters to Santa program will continue, albeit with closer oversight, even after a registered sex offender slipped into the volunteer pool. The lesson of situations like this shouldn't be that something bad happened.... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/the_postal_service_keeps_chris.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/the_postal_service_keeps_chris.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Fri,20 Nov 2009 16:02:10 GMT Remember about the conflict between that foreign aid bill I mentioned and the State Department's first major quadrennial review I wrote about earlier in the week? The arguments over it are continuing, with Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew asking... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/foreign_aid_bill_v_states_quad.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/foreign_aid_bill_v_states_quad.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Fri,20 Nov 2009 14:36:21 GMT By Robert Brodsky As expected, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee moved the nomination of Daniel Gordon to serve as the administrator of federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget Thursday afternoon. Gordon's nomination was... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/one_step_closer_to_an_ofpp_adm.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/one_step_closer_to_an_ofpp_adm.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Thu,19 Nov 2009 21:38:33 GMT Both Erroll Southers' nomination to lead the Transportation Security Administration and Chai Feldblum's nomination to be a member of the Equal Employment advanced today, as the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Southers' nomination and Feldblum had her... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/tsa_eeoc_nominations_take_next.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/tsa_eeoc_nominations_take_next.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Thu,19 Nov 2009 19:38:18 GMT Not that it's surprising, but lawmakers are sharply divided on the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act at a markup being held in the House Oversight and Government Reform. After ranking Republican Darrell Issa cited unemployment figures among African-American men... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/lawmakers_clash_at_domestic_pa.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/lawmakers_clash_at_domestic_pa.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Wed,18 Nov 2009 19:58:09 GMT A proposal to create the Roosevelt Scholars Program -- sort of a civilian ROTC program to encourage college students to pursue careers in government through scholarships and stipends -- has been introduced in the Senate by George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/third_time_the_charm_for_roose.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/third_time_the_charm_for_roose.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alex M. Parker) Wed,18 Nov 2009 17:52:47 GMT It's not a theoretical question any more, as the Senate is moving forward on foreign aid bill that will strengthen the U.S. Agency for International Development, even as the State Department is doing a significant review of how it is... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/what_happens_when_policy_revie.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/what_happens_when_policy_revie.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Wed,18 Nov 2009 16:20:19 GMT I have to say, the fact that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is using a matchmaking program as an incentive to keep agency employees happy, strikes me as a little strange. Not that there's anything wrong with people finding happiness, in... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/agencies_setting_up_their_own.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/agencies_setting_up_their_own.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Wed,18 Nov 2009 15:30:06 GMT I'm always both interested in and annoyed by Gallup's annual survey that seeks to measure how Americans view different parts of the federal government. It makes sense to me that the military is held in high esteem, if only because... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/agency_popularity_contests.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/agency_popularity_contests.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Tue,17 Nov 2009 22:00:52 GMT I think it's entirely logical that federal employee unions should be included in the Office of Personnel Management's work on expanding federal-sector telework opportunities. Whether at the Patent and Trademark Office, where telework was the one initiative that started in... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/telework_consultation.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/telework_consultation.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Tue,17 Nov 2009 20:12:43 GMT By Robert Brodsky The Obama administration is hitting back against charges that Recovery Act jobs figures are unreliable and overstated. In a post this morning on the White House blog, Ed DeSeve, a special advisor to the president for the... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/white_house_fires_back_at_reco.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/white_house_fires_back_at_reco.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Tue,17 Nov 2009 17:08:21 GMT Another reason simple self-reporting may not always be the answer: sometimes employers lie. Obviously, this is a problem that's more pronounced with issues like occupational health and safety, where employers have an incentive to avoid fines, and in some cases,... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/more_on_the_subject_of_self-re.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/more_on_the_subject_of_self-re.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Mon,16 Nov 2009 21:12:58 GMT By Elizabeth Newell House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Rep Darrell Issa, Calif., is calling for the Office of Management and Budget to be present at an upcoming hearing on the stimulus. The Thursday hearing, called "How Recovery... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/will_the_real_watchdogs_please.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/will_the_real_watchdogs_please.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Mon,16 Nov 2009 18:09:02 GMT It makes sense that the Government Accountability Office would do a strong internal audit, given that checking in on other people's goals is what they do best. And given that they're a small agency, it's easier for them to aggregate... http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/gao_self-audits.php http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/11/gao_self-audits.php webmaster@govexec.com (Alyssa Rosenberg) Mon,16 Nov 2009 16:41:38 GMT