Office of Management and Budget
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News and buzz in the acquisition and IT communities that you may have missed this week.
January 11, 2013 -
The Postal Service issued a draft solicitation for the Federal Cloud Credential Exchange. The goal is to create a cloud-based service to perform identity authentication and verification. Agencies could plug into the service, integrating it with any application that adheres to the standards.
January 11, 2013 -
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he plans to introduce legislation allowing for the elimination or consolidation of outdated or redundant agency reports. Cutting back on unnecessary reporting requirements is part of the 2010 Government Performance and Results Modernization Act.
January 10, 2013 -
The White House submitted a report to Congress as part of the GPRA Modernization Act that details hundreds of unnecessary reports and studies. The report listed 70 DoD reports as well as the desire to streamline the report on duplicate reports.
January 09, 2013 -
The guidance is two months late, but OMB is expected to issue it in early 2013. Todd Park, the federal CTO, said the White House also is updating the Data.gov platform and expanding the approach to healthcare data to other sectors.
January 07, 2013 -
John Kamensky from the IBM Center for The Business of Government talks about two decades of a results-oriented federal performance management system. Allan Holmes of Bloomberg Government discusses the top technology issues facing the government in 2013. Jeffrey Neal of ICF International sheds light on OPM's new guide to executive development. Jacque Simon of AFGE discusses legislation that could freeze federal pay to the end of the year.
January 03, 2013 -
The government will save money on mass transit for federal employees thanks to this year's SAVE award winner. Frederick Winter's idea to switch eligible feds from a regular transit fare to a reduced senior fare will lower the cost of those employees' travel by 50 percent.
December 21, 2012 -
The Obama administration offered agencies new guidance on sequestration, telling agency leaders and federal-employee unions that sequestration won't have an immediate impact on the federal workforce or government operations even if the automatic budget cuts go into effect Jan. 2.
December 20, 2012 -
The Federal Acquisition Regulations Council's proposal would implement part of a July 2012 memo from the Office of Management and Budget. The memo directed agencies to take specific steps to ensure accelerated payments to small businesses.
December 20, 2012 -
The White House typically gives agencies both funding and policy updates for the upcoming budget request by Thanksgiving. This year OMB decided to hold off on passback guidance because of the current fiscal negotiations with Congress. Several senior agency officials said this lag will compress the timeline to respond to the information and require them to prepare for something that may never happen.
December 20, 2012 -
The four ideas received the most votes over the last four months out of more than 10,000 ideas. This is the fourth year OMB has held the SAVE Awards. The winner presents their idea to President Obama and gets it included in the 2014 budget request.
December 18, 2012 -
The administration updated Performance.gov with a variety of data to highlight progress against each agency's goals and the cross-agency goals. OMB's Shelley Metzenbaum said the depth of information now on the site puts pressure on agencies to meet or surpass their goals. Interior and Education provide examples of how the discipline that the high-priority goals demanded has positively impacted their agency.
December 14, 2012 -
NASA, the Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation share a common trait that led them to the top ranking for their size class in the Partnership for Public Service's seventh annual Best Places to Work survey. Transportation, OMB and the National Credit Union Administration earn the most improved status by implementing the best practices of the leading agencies.
December 14, 2012 -
A new memo from acting OMB Director Jeff Zients to agency leaders codifies an interagency council to oversee the promotion and implementation of bulk buying. Each agency also must name a senior official to oversee their efforts.
December 06, 2012 -
Rep. Darrell Issa said agencies need a lot more agility in their IT spending, but a lack of budget authority and a proliferation of accountability among bureau-level CIOs gets in the way.
December 04, 2012