Congress
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Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released long-anticipated legislation Friday aiming to reform the finances of the ailing U.S. Postal Service. Issa updated an earlier discussion draft of his bill with several proposals originally floated by Democrats.
July 19, 2013 -
House Small Business Committee members introduce two bills to ban reverse auctions in many cases and mandate a two-step process to evaluate design and build procurements.
July 19, 2013 -
Top officials at the Treasury Department and the General Services Administration say budget cuts being considered by House lawmakers - and that have since adopted by the House Appropriations Committee - would erode their agencies' missions. In sharply divided vote mostly along partisan lines Wednesday, the committee approved the fiscal 2014 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill.
July 18, 2013 -
In responding to a list of wartime contracting changes Congress ordered last year, agencies cited many advances, but acknowledge challenges remain. Recent audits show major problems in how the Defense and State departments, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, continue to spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan.
July 18, 2013 -
In the past few weeks, competing draft proposals have been circulating on Capitol Hill. But at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) took a step toward compromise. Issa agreed to make changes to his draft plan, including adopting several measures proposed by Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in postal reform legislation he separately introduced Wednesday.
July 17, 2013 -
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel put the ball in Congress' court this week when he released details of how the Pentagon would manage billions of dollars in cuts if sequestration continues into fiscal 2014 and beyond. But, there's not yet anything close to a winning strategy in Congress to avert or replace the automatic budget cuts.
July 11, 2013 -
The Office of Personnel Management's proposed changes to the Combined Federal Campaign, the annual federal fundraising drive, are getting a frosty reception from local charities. OPM wants to do away with the local volunteer coordinating committees and put in place a set of more centralized regional committees established by OPM. It also wants to require charities to pay an application fee and eliminate cash and check donations in favor of electronic donations. However, some charities say the proposed changes would likely lead to fewer charities joining the program -- and fewer total donations.
July 10, 2013 -
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a letter to Congress that if spending caps continue under sequestration, marked cuts in DoD's budget would possibly lead to reductions in force. Hagel also said there could be severe cuts in operations and maintenance.
July 10, 2013 -
House Republicans said IRS official Lois Lerner waived her right to remain silent by giving an opening statement in her hearing. Lerner still may testify before Congress with a variety of consequences.
July 09, 2013 -
House members with constituents impacted by budget cuts to the Patent and Trademark Office and Department of Defense are taking steps to ease the effect of sequestration and furloughs.
July 08, 2013 -
The annual appropriations process is a complex and arduous Washington practice. But sequestration has snarled the process this year. As appropriators work to set agency funding, the House and the Senate disagree about how to account for the cuts in next year's spending plans.
July 07, 2013 -
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts will discuss how the Berry Amendment is affecting troop supplies, what's ahead for Congress when its members return from vacation, and the lobbying activities of companies that supply goods and services associated with the July 4th holiday. July 4, 2013
July 04, 2013 -
While agencies missed their overall small business goal in 2012, they did meet the governmentwide goals for small disadvantaged businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said the results are "unacceptable."
July 03, 2013 -
The law, which goes into effect today, expands reprisal protections to subcontractors and lets contractor employees report wrongdoing to supervisors within their own companies. Previously, contractors would have to go to government agencies or Congress to report waste, fraud and abuse.
July 01, 2013 -
The metrics used by the Defense Department to help determine whether it needs an official round of Base Realignments and Closures (BRAC) is in need of an update, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Current procedures lack the precision needed to give the Pentagon accurate data on the number of excess properties it actually owns.
June 27, 2013