Congress
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As lawmakers consider efforts to shore up the Postal Service's financial footing, there's still widespread disagreement over whether the current requirement for the agency prefunding requirement is fiscally responsible, as Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) argued during a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing Thursday, or an "onerous mandate" only required of the Postal Service, as Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) contended.
March 14, 2014 -
Gen. Keith Alexander, who will soon retire as the first commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said his organization has matured to the point that it should join the club of unified commands that report directly to the President.
March 14, 2014 -
The Pentagon's 2015 budget request includes sharp cuts in funding for construction and maintenance on military bases, which congressional appropriators immediately denounced. But Defense officials say they could do a better job of maintaining military bases if they were allowed to close they ones they no longer need.
March 13, 2014 -
Legislation newly introduced in the Senate proposes to scrap hundreds of unneeded, outdated or repetitive reports. The House, meanwhile, is marking up its own version of the bill.
March 12, 2014 -
Amid a Congressional push to add new teeth to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act, federal officials insist they are taking steps on their own to make sure agencies release information to the public. Among the efforts is a move to standardize agency rules around FOIA and create a single Web portal for FOIA requests.
March 12, 2014 -
Senate lawmakers, White House officials and good government groups say the current way agencies develop regulations is broken. They agree it takes too long, is too complicated and not transparent enough.
March 12, 2014 -
Federal News Radio's DoD Reporter Jared Serbu offers news tidbits and buzz about the Defense Department.
March 10, 2014 -
The Obama administration says the Defense Department needs an additional $26 billion in excess of next year's Defense spending caps in order to carry out DoD's mission. But even the staunchest defenders of the Pentagon budget on Capitol Hill acknowledge that the extra funding is unlikely to materialize.
March 07, 2014 -
DoD's cost savings proposals for 2015 and beyond include something for every lawmaker to hate. The process of selling the budget on Capitol Hill officially kicked off Wednesday, and the reception was not exceptionally warm.
March 06, 2014 -
The Government Accountability Office is requesting about $525 million for fiscal 2015, an increase of about 4 percent, or $19 million, above current levels. The additional funding would allow the agency to continue staffing up the agency from the nearly rock-bottom levels it hit over the past few years. The additional funding would also allow GAO to make upgrades to its aging IT infrastructure and do long-deferred building upkeep and and maintenance
March 05, 2014 -
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.
March 04, 2014 -
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.
March 04, 2014 -
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.
March 04, 2014 -
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.
March 04, 2014 -
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.
February 28, 2014