Beth Cobert
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The nomination of Shaun Donovan to be director of the Office of Management and Budget as well as a variety of bills dealing with federal IT reform and cybersecurity updates crowded the docket of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee business meeting Wednesday.
June 26, 2014 -
In this edition of Inside the Reporter's Notebook, Executive Editor Jason Miller shares news and buzz about the IT and acquisition communities.
June 06, 2014 -
NSA, State and nearly every other agency are developing "fixes" to protect unauthorized employees from taking data. Experts say employees need to understand why the rules are in place and how they benefit both the organization and worker. OMB says one way to improve the situation is by reducing the number of federal employees with security clearances-an initiative that already is underway.
May 21, 2014 -
In Part 4 of the special report, Questioning Clearances, Federal News Radio examines the government's plan to use new technology to keep better tabs on cleared personnel on a near, real-time basis. But some experts wonder whether such a plan could be implemented successfully in the swift timelines sought by the government.
May 18, 2014 -
The Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department Friday announced they recertified the departments of Interior, Treasury and Transportation and added USDA to be the support pylons of its financial management shared services initiative. GSA is no longer an approved provider, and it's unclear where its 44 customers will migrate to next.
May 05, 2014 -
In the coming months, the federal government will release a detailed plan for implementing more than a dozen recommendations to improve the security clearance process, said Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management Beth Cobert. The government's recommendations, which were included in an interagency report published by OMB last month, call for "continuous evaluation" of clearance holders and strengthened oversight of the background-investigation process.
April 16, 2014 -
Beth Cobert, the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management, spoke at a Professional Services Council luncheon this afternoon. Among her top priorities is rolling out the President's second-term management agenda. Cobert says the new plan targets the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs. She shares a preview of her long to-do list with In Depth with Francis Rose
April 15, 2014 -
Three years after the Government Accountability Office first reported that federal agencies were managing a maze of potentially duplicative federal programs, the watchdog agency has added nearly a dozen more areas to its tally of duplication and overlap. GAO's latest report identifies a total of 26 areas for potential cost-savings, ranging from fragmented operations to out-and-out copycat programs being run by multiple agencies.
April 09, 2014 -
The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations is getting ready to launch new tools to help partnerships between agency management and federal-employee unions better measure their effectiveness. A handful of agencies are months late in compiling metrics on the use and effectiveness of the forums, according to a report presented at a meeting of the labor-management council Wednesday. Unions are frustrated with the haphazard data collection.
March 19, 2014 -
Six months after 34-year-old IT contractor Aaron Alexis opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard killing 12 people, concerns about missed red flags in his background and gaps in the security clearance process are now turning into action. The Obama administration released the findings of a interagency review of the federal security clearance process Tuesday. Among the 13 recommendations for shoring up the system are continuously evaluating clearance holders rather than relying on infrequent check-ups and improving investigators' access to state and local police records.
March 18, 2014 -
What's the secret to meeting 100 agency performance goals in the next two years?
March 14, 2014 -
In the fiscal 2015 budget request to Congress, the White House detailed 15 cross-agency priority goals and almost 100 agency-specific goals. The goals and new strategic plans are laying the groundwork for agencies to continue to improve mission delivery and operations over the next two years.
March 14, 2014 -
An update for your agency's performance management to-do list.
March 13, 2014 -
In the fiscal 2015 budget, the White House laid out initiatives that fall under each of the four pillars of the management agenda. The federal IT budget would drop to $79.1 billion in 2015 -- down from $81.4 billion in 2014.
March 04, 2014 -
The White House will release an updated list of agency high-priority goals and cross-agency priority goals with the annual budget request to Congress in March. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget detailed agency successes over the last two years in meeting current goals.
February 14, 2014