Congress

• Will the tires go flat on the omnibus?

  Whatever happens, it has to happen before 12:01 am Sunday! The Hill\'s Bob Cusack breaks it all down for us.

  Federal Drive

  December 15, 2010
• Senate omnibus bill includes 2-year pay freeze

  The $1.1 trillion Senate omnibus bill would authorize President Obama\'s pay freeze proposal. But it protects against furloughs or reductions-in-force. The Senate\'s bill would replace the House\'s version, which is a continuing resolution. Lawmakers must approve a bill before Dec. 19 when the current CR expires.

  Budget

  December 14, 2010
• VTC Round-up: New telework law provides opportunity for agencies to increase VTC capabilities

  With the new telework bill signed into law, federal employees will soon have more opportunities to telework, and agencies have more incentive to invest in or increase their telepresence options. After the Senate passed the bill in September, the House followed suit in November. It was signed into law last week, and encourages federal employees to telework. Currently, about 5 percent of federal employees participate in some sort of telework plan, and agencies will have to improve their existing technology capabilities and options to meet the increase in participating employees. \"We\'re talking about bringing the government into the 21st century from a technology point of view and every other point of view,\" said bill sponsor Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) in an interview with Federal News Radio last month. \"The technology is moving so aggressively there\'s no reason not to have a good telework policy,\" Wolf said. Video teleconferencing is already a component of telework programs at many agencies, and has in some cases enabled greater allowance for teleworking. At the Defense Information Systems Agency, the desktop- and laptop- based telepresence has \"enabled our telework program to thrive, allowing DISA employees to fully participate in meetings, no matter where they are located,\" Colonel Brian Hermann, chief of the Net-Centric Enterprise Services branch. \"It allows off-site employees to \"participate fully in small-group meetings, including the use of whiteboarding and sharing presentations,\" Hermann said. Will other agencies follow suit? Stay tuned. Navy adding telepresence at National Naval Medical Center The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda is looking to install a video teleconferencing room which will serve as the Admiral\'s Conference room. The conference room will be used for executive-level video teleconference and Board of Directors meetings, among others according to a solicitation posted to FedBizzOpps.gov.

  Congress

  December 14, 2010
• House to vote on repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell

  WASHINGTON (AP) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the House will vote on a stand-alone bill that would repeal the policy of forbidding gays from serving openly in the military. Rep. Patrick Murphy of…

  Congress

  December 14, 2010
• GPO teams with Google to offer federal e-books

  The Government Printing Office and Google are now offering more than 100 electronic titles of federal government publications.

  Congress

  December 14, 2010
• Pay freeze should be decided this week

  With the emphasis on \"should.\" Without Senate passage of federal funding, the current continuing resolution expires Saturday night. The President\'s proposed pay freeze is part of the funding package passed by the House last week and is now in the hands of the Senate.

  Congress

  December 13, 2010
• Gates still calling for repeal of DADT

  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will apparently remain the law of the land. Federal News Radio told you Thursday that a Senate move to overturn the provision failed by three vote. What does that mean for…

  Congress

  December 10, 2010
• GAO reports on how to rightsize the Postal Service

  The recession and changes in the use of mail as transactions and messages go more and more electronic. How can the USPS keep up? The GAO\'s Phil Herr has details.

  Federal Drive

  December 10, 2010
• Mindshare: managing IT projects incrementally

  Randolph Hite with GAO says his experience over the last 30 years in looking at large-scale IT projects across more federal departments and agencies than I can name has shown that this self-evident truth has been long and widely recognized and adopted when it comes to how IT projects are developed or acquired.

  Federal Drive

  December 10, 2010
• Are federal agencies truly managing IT projects incrementally?

  Does acquiring or developing a system incrementally equate to managing it incrementally? In a word, the answer is \"no.\" Randolph C. Hite is the director of IT Architecture and Systems Issues at the Government Accountability Office.

  Budget

  December 09, 2010
• Report evaluates VA, DoD disability claims pilot program

  More than 40,000 servicemembers have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department are facing a backlog in disability claims. Both agencies have been conducting a pilot to…

  Congress

  December 09, 2010
• Defense Authorization Act explained

  The Washington Post\'s Federal Eyes breaks down the spending items within the bill.

  Budget

  December 09, 2010
• Pay freeze proposal advances to Senate

  The House measure wraps all the unfinished annual spending bills into a single catchall measure while freezing spending at last year\'s levels. One of the biggest surprises in the act is the inclusion of a two year pay freeze as proposed by President Obama.

  Budget

  December 09, 2010
• GOP faces challenges to end big government

  POLITICO\'s Rich Cohen discusses the Republicans\' challenge to ending big government.

  Congress

  December 08, 2010