House Oversight and Reform Committee

  • Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has broadened the scope of Congress' probe into the GSA conference scandal, requesting a list of all overnight conferences attended by more than 50 employees at 23 federal agencies and departments.

    April 13, 2012
  • Internal emails from the General Services Administration show high-level agency officials were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view. And as early as last summer, officials disagreed over how to reprimand the employees responsible for excessive spending at a 2010 regional training conference.

    April 13, 2012
  • Video has surfaced from the lavish Las Vegas conference, which eventually led to the firing of two top officials and the resignation of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson amid an outcry over excessive spending. The video portrays an awards ceremony at the October 2010 Western Region Conference along with a music video created by a GSA employee that pokes fun at, among other things, GSA spending and inspector general investigations.

    April 05, 2012
  • The House unanimously voted Tuesday to create a new process for disposing of the federal government's 14,000 excess properties, beginning with a pilot program to sell off more than a dozen of the most profitable facilities. Under the law, agencies would be able to keep a portion of the proceeds from the sale of real property. The bill would also create a comprehensive database compiling a list of all of the federal government's real property.

    March 20, 2012
  • Progress has been made in better recruiting and training the acquisition workforce, but budget cuts could threaten years of progress, outgoing OFPP administrator Dan Gordon said at a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

    November 17, 2011
  • The Office of Personnel Management faces a House subcommittee today to answer questions about its handling of the USAJobs relaunch.

    November 15, 2011
  • The widespread frustration over the Office of Personnel Management\'s handling of USAJobs.gov has caught lawmakers\' attention. The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce has invited OPM, government inspectors and Monster, the company that previously ran the federal jobs site, to testify at a hearing Tuesday.

    November 14, 2011
  • Some call the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee\'s approval of a 10 percent cut in the federal workforce is a political statement. Others worry it portends cuts in federal pay, benefits or jobs. Federal employees\' groups have stepped up lobbying efforts.

    November 07, 2011
  • Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said the federal jobs website USAJobs.gov is headed in the right direction after a rough debut three weeks ago. OPM has added server capacity and refined features to make the site easier to use. OPM Director John Berry said the agency\'s response is an example of \"government working.\" But OPM now faces a congressional hearing and public outrage over the botched rollout.

    November 04, 2011
  • House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved H.R. 3029, which would cut the workforce by 10 percent by September 2014.

    November 03, 2011
  • The chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform said agencies need to do more to train new employees to make the best decisions. Lankford said the turnover in the workforce and the lack of consistent training for the new employees is a major concern for the subcommittee.

    November 01, 2011
  • Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said he will hold hearings to see how to make the federal grant process more transparent. The administration merged two existing boards into a new Council on Financial Assistance Reform to improve the grant-making process. HHS awarded a $32.4 million contract for IT services for grants.gov portal.

    October 31, 2011
  • The Department of Homeland Security expects an audit of its IT systems will bring relatively good news in two weeks. Last year\'s audit found 161 issues in technology systems throughout the agency. Those problems ranged from a lack of disaster recovery plans to the inability to block former employees from accessing department IT systems.

    October 28, 2011
  • Lawmakers charged with reducing the federal deficit should look to contractors\' compensation rather than reduce government workers\' pay and benefits, a coalition of federal unions and management associations wrote in a letter to supercommittee leaders.

    October 21, 2011