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Congress returns to session this week with a few short months to reach a budget resolution for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and agree on how to avoid the automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade that will be triggered Jan. 2, 2013, under the Budget Control Act debt limit deal. But don't expect much to get accomplished before the election, say budget experts.
Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenas Jeff Neely, PBS region 9 commissioner, to appear. Along with Neely, PBS Deputy Commissioner David Foley and former Administrator Martha Johnson are on the witness list. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also is expected to hear from GSA Deputy Administrator Susan Brita, CFO Alison Doone and event planner Lisa Daniels.
Current and former officials at the General Services Administration will face a gauntlet of congressional hearings this week, following reports of excessive spending on a 2010 regional training conference and other programs. In an interview on In Depth with Francis Rose, former Virginia Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tom Davis shared his insights and what to look for during the hearings.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has broadened the scope of Congress' probe into the GSA conference scandal, requesting a list of all overnight conferences attended by more than 50 employees at 23 federal agencies and departments.
Internal emails from the General Services Administration show high-level agency officials were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view. And as early as last summer, officials disagreed over how to reprimand the employees responsible for excessive spending at a 2010 regional training conference.
Shortly after the Titanic sank 100 years ago, the Senate conducted an investigation into in the disaster. Transcripts of these hearings are available in libraries across the U.S.
In 2008, Congress mandated the Pentagon to keep an inventory of service contracts and review it annually to make sure government work wasn't being improperly outsourced. But the Government Accountability Office, in a recent report, found a lack of guidance from the top has led to challenges in implementing that requirement.
The White House launched a new "Do Not Pay" tool on Thursday to prevent improper payments to individuals and companies. Agency heads must submit plans to adopt the tool by June 30.
David Powner, GAO's Director of Information Technology Issues, said the problem is not that IRS does not have enough funding for technology — the problem is the agency is still relying on antiquated systems.
BCA does not specify how those cuts would be implemented. One interpretation is every program is cut by the same amount, which would be by about 13 percent. The other interpretation of the act is the overall spending would have to be reduced by 13 percent and the Pentagon could pick and choose the programs to cut, said Kevin Brancato, a defense analyst for Bloomberg Government.
Information sharing is critical but insufficient, White House cyber chief says. Howard Schmidt said the federal government's responsibility is broader than its own systems and that is why any cyber bill needs stronger oversight of critical networks.
Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) introduced legislation to make sharing of classified cyber threat information easier between the government and the private sector. The bill builds on DoD's Defense Industrial Base pilot to share data about vulnerabilities. DoD plans to expand the DIB pilot to more than 200 companies in the coming year.
Acting General Services Administration chief Dan Tangherlini said the 'Hats Off' incentive program has been suspended. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who has promised an investigation into agency spending, said she's not sure GSA's actions are enough to change the culture.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, the former CBO director, discusses the latest CBO projections for the federal budget deficit.