management

Ray Mabus became the longest-serving Navy secretary since Josephus Daniels, Woodrow Wilson’s secretary during the first world war.

The last four administrations have recognized the need for constant improvement of the citizen experience. They’ve devoted people and serious policy-making to cause it to happen.

It comes up about this time every four years – questions over whether the Office of Mangement and Budget is organized in the best way to help the government deliver. You hear periodic calls for going back to having a budget bureau, or boosting the ‘M’ in OMB. For some ideas of what the next president can do, Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at the Partnership for Public Service joins the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The next president’s administration will rely heavily on the Office of Management and Budget’s expertise in crafting a governmentwide management agenda, but only after it gets a handle on the protracted budget process.

Congress only gave agencies funding until Dec. 9 when it passed a continuing resolution last month. It funded itself for all of 2017. Yet some executive branch accounts also got full-year funding, something contractors need to know about. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, shares more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Government by continuing resolution is no fun for anyone. Plans get put on hold, strategies stall. And it’s hard for contractors when the government holds back, afraid to overspend what might be appropriated. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin that early on a CR can have some benefits.

Beth Angerman, the executive director of the Unified Shared Services Management (USSM) Office, said the modernization and migration management (M3) framework, a new six-step playbook and a shared services catalog are putting the pieces in place to help agencies succeed in moving back-office systems to shared services.

In today’s Top Federal headlines, new rules help gov’t hire more small business subcontractors, and GAO warns DoD and the VA don’t have a solid plan for e-record interoperability.

The Defense Department has spent the last seven years getting itself ready for its first-ever financial audit. But the congressionally-mandated timeline for DoD to become “audit ready” means a new administration will have taken office before the final test.

Exhaustive research commissioned by the local 2030 group looked into capital, entrepreneurship, business formation and mergers and acquisitions in the Washington, D.C. area. Report author Jonathan Aberman of Amplifier Ventures shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.