Agency Oversight

  • Congress heads toward summer recess next week. As they leave town, federal employee issues seem to be on their minds more than normal. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Census. He chaired a hearing last week on the future of the General Schedule. On In Depth with Francis Rose he has the details about the recent hearing.

    July 25, 2014
  • House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members approved the Federal Records Accountability Act, which mandates preservation of digital correspondence. The committee also passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act, which would establish a presidential committee to find and review outdated, burdensome, costly or obsolete regulations.

    July 25, 2014
  • Anne Rung, President Obama's nominee to lead the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, detailed her three major priorities should the Senate confirm her. Lawmakers press Rung on improving communication between OMB and Congress, and how best to deal with the multi-sector workforce.

    July 25, 2014
  • Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) introduces the third iteration of the SAVE Act with a host of policies for federal agencies designed to cull wasteful spending

    July 24, 2014
  • The Justice Department joined the whistleblower lawsuit against Symantec Corporation on Tuesday. The department accuses the technology contractor of providing inaccurate prices to the General Services Administration, violating the False Claims Act.

    July 23, 2014
  • Nearly 800 current and former Veterans Affairs employees and patients have submitted complaints about the department to a watchdog group. The Project on Government Oversight set up a special website to collect their complaints. It says the number of submissions is a record. Lydia Dennett is an investigator for the Project On Government Oversight. She joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss what POGO found.

    July 23, 2014
  • The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies include more data in its 2016 budget requests for this fall. OMB wants benchmarks and timelines of financial investments so it can organize its cross-agency priority goals. Beth McGrath is director of Deloitte's Federal Practice. She's also former deputy chief management officer at the Defense Department. In a Federal News Radio op-ed and on In Depth with Francis Rose, McGrath said agencies should be making even more business decisions based on data.

    July 22, 2014
  • The Department of Homeland Security answers to ninety-two Congressional committees and another twenty-seven outside organizations. The Annenberg Public Policy Center says that's a total of one hundred nineteen different oversight groups. Bob Tobias is Director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the complicated web of leadership might be a big reason why Congress has never passed an authorization bill for agency.

    July 22, 2014
  • It's hard to tell how many agencies are actually checking all the boxes on the Obama administration's plan for detecting disgruntled or rogue employees. Agencies were supposed to have taken initial steps to set up insider threat programs by June 30, according to an update posted on Performance.gov. But it's impossible to know the number of agencies who met the initial criteria so far. The progress update says that information is classified.

    July 18, 2014
  • Two congressional leaders want to know whether USIS' history was considered when awarding a $190 million Homeland Security Department contract.

    July 17, 2014
  • There are a lot of reasons the Department of Veterans Affairs has a huge backlog of disability claims. One is the vast number of new claims VA receives: about a million per year. A second is the sheer complexity of the process and the statutes and case law behind it. VA seems to be acknowledging the complexity of the system in a new partnership it's just formed with the American Bar Association. The new Veterans Claims Assistance Network will offer pro-bono legal services to veterans so that they can put together fully-developed claims. Jim Silkenat is the national president of the American Bar Association. He explained how the program will work on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.

    July 16, 2014
  • NOAA planes used for tracking and forecasting hurricanes -- known as the P-3 Orion -- are reaching the end of their lifespan, according to a report published by the Government Accountability Office.

    July 16, 2014
  • Just about every agency in government has suffered from cutbacks in training and travel funding. But at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, talking with the stakeholders in the educational institutions they oversee is a core part of the mission, so when conferences got cut back, leaders knew they had to find another way to engage. They've since moved most of their training programs online. Rachel Canty is deputy director for SEVP. She said the agency's more than happy with the results on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.

    July 15, 2014
  • A top House overseer of federal law enforcement thinks that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) should be dissolved.

    July 15, 2014