House Oversight and Reform Committee
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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Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act, which would establish a presidential committee to find and review outdated, burdensome, costly or obsolete regulations.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 -
The Environmental Protection Agency's administrator recently mentioned the administrative obstacles of firing employees and suggested Congress change the law. One of the unions representing EPA employees is now responding in a letter that blames management, not employees for agency problems.
July 17, 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's growing consensus on Capitol Hill and from the Obama administration that the pay and personnel system used by the federal government since 1949 and infrequently updated is showing its age — and due for a major facelift. Lawmakers probed the General Schedule system Tuesday during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census.
July 15, 2014 -
The Government Accountability Office will take a close look at the morale of federal government employees. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) ask for a full review of federal workforce trends from the GAO. And the Office of Personnel Management will soon have a better idea of feds' job satisfaction. It's sending the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey later this month. Pat Niehaus, national president of the Federal Managers Association, tells In Depth with Francis Rose a solution for your agency's morale problems is coming from the inside.
April 15, 2014 -
The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is starting over on postal reform legislation and taking as its template a surprising source — the White House's fiscal 2015 budget request. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told members of the committee and the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget that he intends to "embrace to the greatest extent possible" the entire slate of legislative proposals for overhauling the Postal Service included in the President's budget request.
April 08, 2014 -
Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the oversight committee, and John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, want OMB to provide data to the committee on excess federal properties valued at $50 million or more. The committee has been seeking this information for more than two years, "yet these requests have consistently gone unfulfilled," Issa and Mica wrote in a March 24 letter to OMB Director Sylvia Burwell.
March 25, 2014 -
The strange case of Lois Lerner - a federal official pleading the fifth - and the IRS.
March 20, 2014 -
The FOIA Act of 2014 would amend the Freedom of Information Act in 12 ways. It calls for the online portal and requires more oversight by agency inspectors general. But some agency FOIA officers say the bill only would improve the information disclosure process minimally.
March 19, 2014 -
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 -
HHS and CMS cyber officials tell House lawmakers the Affordable Care Act portal is meeting or exceeding industry best practices for information assurance.
January 17, 2014 -
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says agency inspectors general are increasingly facing obstacles in their efforts to uncover waste and misconduct. The top watchdogs at both the Justice Department and the Peace Corps told lawmakers they've faced resistance from their agencies at times in turning over records in recent years. Lawmakers also expressed concern about the impact of across-the-board budget cuts on the operations agency IG operations.
January 15, 2014 -
Sen. Tom Coburn told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday that Congress isn't doing its job and that's the root cause of much of the waste in government. Rep. Darrell Issa promised to work with Coburn and Sen. Tom Carper on legislation to reduce overlapping programs.
January 09, 2014 -
Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has issued a subpoena for records from the Office of Personnel Management, seeking more details on the agency's process for conducting background investigations. OPM's Federal Investigative Services division, which conducts 90 percent of the federal government's background investigations, has come under intense scrutiny since it was revealed earlier this year that the same contractor -- United States Investigation Services (USIS) -- performed background checks of both National Security agency leaker Edward Snowden and Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis.
November 22, 2013 -
In this week's edition of Inside the Reporter's Notebook, Executive Editor Jason Miller shares news and buzz in the acquisition and IT communities that you may have missed.
November 15, 2013