Management

• Feds should not shoulder the burden of deficit reduction

  Federal employees continue to be Congress' go-to resource for deficit reduction through pay freezes and increases in their retirement contributions, according to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Van Hollen's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Managing through tight budgets; lessons from all levels of government

  Agencies must face the fiscal realities of constrained budgets and limited resources. Dan Chenok, the executive director of IBM Center for the Business of Government, says executives need to look across all levels of government to find ways to save costs. Mr. Chenok's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Fixing the budget problem starts with accepting the politics behind it

  Adopting biennial appropriations and committing to stable funding for capital investments would go a long way towards fixing a broken budget process that is inherently political, says Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Mr. Clark's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Long-term budget outlook key to fiscal success

  Under the current annual budget cycle, the difficult struggle to pass appropriations bills consumes too much valuable time and effort, says Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition. Mr. Bixby's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Why the budget process isn’t the budget problem

  The challenge is not to fine tune the obviously dysfunctional budget process. The challenge is to rethink the budget process and the presentation of the budget so that it is more likely to produce a durable consensus among a significant number of Democrats and Republicans and promote better public understanding of the fiscal choices the nation faces, says David Wessel of the Brookings Institution. Mr. Wessel's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Biennial budgeting, Transformation Board needed to restore fiscal sanity

  In addition to restoring reasonable Presidential reorganization authority, it's time to implement a statutory Government Transformation Board to make periodic findings and recommendations to Congress, says David Walker, former comptroller general of the U.S. Mr. Walker's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• Biennial budget process will reduce agency waste, increase congressional efficiency

  Twenty states currently use biennial budgeting, with great results, says Congressman Reid Ribble. Rep. Ribble's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• What the federal government can learn from the state of Connecticut

  The state of Connecticut relies on a results-based accountability model to develop its budget. Rep. Diana Urban says the system offers a structure that allows lawmakers to create a shared vision and get rid of programs that are not achieving that vision. Rep. Urban's column is part of Federal News Radio's special report, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process.

  Budget

  March 04, 2014
• The top contracting issues in 2014

  Jim Phillips, executive vice president of Centre Consulting, will discuss various contracting issues with host Mark Amtower. March 3, 2014

  Amtower Off-Center

  March 03, 2014
• OSTP asks agencies for ‘bold, ambitious’ open government initiatives

  A new memo from CTO Todd Park requires agencies to update their open government plans by June 1. The plans should include new efforts as well as progress reports on current initiatives.

  Technology

  March 03, 2014
• Air Force to accelerate headquarters staff cuts

  Air Force leaders intend to surpass their share of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's edict to reduce DoD headquarters spending by 20 percent and complete the task several years ahead of schedule. The personnel cuts are part of the service's plan to shrink its size in order to catch up with decades of deferred spending on readiness and modernization.

  Budget

  March 03, 2014
• Obama to propose employee training improvements in 2015 budget

  OPM Director Katherine Archuleta didn't have details on the proposals, but she said agencies need to learn from each other and build on their successes.

  Budget

  March 03, 2014
• Senate bill blocks background-check firms from reviewing own work

  The Preventing Conflicts of Interest with Contractors Act would block the Office of Personnel Management from contracting with companies to perform final quality reviews if those same companies are also responsible for conducting initial investigations. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta announced in early February that, going forward, only federal employees would conduct final quality reviews. The new bill writes Archuleta's decision into law. Otherwise it could be reversed by a future OPM director.

  Congress

  February 28, 2014
• National Cancer Institute hopes to find a cure in the cloud

  George Komatsoulis, the National Cancer Institute's deputy director of the center for biomedical informatics and IT, and acting chief information officer, said through the Cloud Atlas Genome project, NCI is trying to reduce costs to access data by medical research institutions and to make sharing of the this data and collaboration easier.

  Ask the CIO

  February 28, 2014