The White House is threatening to veto the $631 billion annual Defense bill the Senate is debating this week unless Congress makes changes. The administration took issue with a number of provisions included in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill, which Senate leaders hope to vote on by the end of the week.
OMB Controller Danny Werfel explains how agencies have been able to cut improper payments. Also, the VA's Mary Santiago discusses the hurdles to hiring more veterans into the federal workforce.
As with overall federal-employee satisfaction scores, the Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework Index trended downward in 2012. Habitual high-scorers, such as NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, continued to sit atop the list. But the report also singled out the Office of Management and Budget and for its notable improvements.
OMB Controller Danny Werfel announced Wednesday the federal government avoided paying out $47 billion in overpayments over the last three years. This missed President Barack Obama's goal of reducing improper payments by $50 billion by the end of FY2012.
A group of former federal cybersecurity experts and professionals have made recommendations for improving federal cybersecurity guidance, such as the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-130.
A White House working group recommended Senate and administration leaders design a core set of common questions and develop a single electronic "smart form," similar to tax-filing software, that appointees could use to complete the necessary forms.
A new report from independent watchdog group OMB Watch suggests the White House has a few tools at its disposal to blunt the impact of the automatic, across-the-board cuts. The strategies include shifting funds around within agencies and the Office of Management and Budget and agencies, themselves, shifting funds and controlling the rate of federal spending, said Patrick Lester, the director of federal fiscal policy for OMB Watch.
President Barack Obama is gearing up for a second term in office, but some members of his Cabinet are on their way out, experts tell Federal News Radio. The legwork for these top- tier changes and others is already in motion behind-the-scenes.
Agencies have identified 98 opportunities where they can save real money by consolidating IT systems or by implementing better buying processes. In an exclusive interview, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said most fall in the commodity IT areas of email, servers and other areas where agencies tend to spend a lot of money for IT.
The chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have written to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) demanding to know why the public release of a report on upcoming federal regulations is behind schedule. In a letter to the agency, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairmen of the Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary committees, respectively, say OIRA has not been forthcoming about the expected publication date of a report that should have been released months ago.
Does the name George Hans Strauss mean anything to you? If you are a career civil servant, chances are he touched your work life in a number of ways, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
A look at the events shaping cybersecurity policy in the federal government over the past six years.
The Office of Management and Budget said the PortfolioStat tool helped agencies find duplicative technology costs and opportunities to buy in bulk. Acting OMB Director Jeff Zients wrote in a blog post agencies listed 98 opportunities for savings.
Six years after the Veterans Affairs data breach, civilian agency networks and computers are more secure. Current and former federal officials and cyber experts say from secretaries on down, the threat of a cyber attack and the impact on mission is well understood.
A group of experts released a white paper recommending changes to OMB Circular A-130. The suggestions center on continuous monitoring, the role of DHS in overseeing FISMA and the definitions of a major IT system and a national security system.