USDA's Administrator for the Farm Service
Agency
explains why ranchers need to keep good records
of
disaster damage. And the Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission...
Dev Culver — Executive Director and CEO, HealthInfoNet
A major part of health care reform is taking shape as a pilot project in Maine. The Affordable Care Act calls for the formation of Health Information Exchanges. HealthInfoNet operates an exchange in Maine. Now, it’s staging an experiment to see how health care quality information can get baked in. The idea is for data to help guide public health officials.
Juan Garcia — Administrator for the Farm Service Agency, USDA
The Agriculture Department is urging livestock producers affected by natural disasters to keep good records. USDA operates several disaster assistance programs for farmers and ranchers. But they’ve run dry since they haven’t been authorized since September 2011. The department hopes Congress will reauthorize them. Until then, it’s telling ranchers to keep their receipts.
Linda Howell — Chief, Response Coordination Branch, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff are riding out Hurricane Isaac in the eye of the storm. The agency has workers to help resident inspectors at nuclear plants in Louisiana and Mississippi. Linda Howell oversees the NRC’s regional response team in Texas, and she’s monitoring the three plants carefully.
Bill Shear — Director of Financial Markets and Community Investment Issues, GAO
The federal government operates 52 programs to help entrepreneurs. But the Government Accountability Office says they aren’t managed very well. A new report cites instances where agencies agreed to coordinate their support programs but never followed through. In other cases, agencies didn’t track, or failed to meet, their performance goals.