Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
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Congress will try again this session on cybersecurity legislation, but some of the problems that prevented it from passing the last several years are back again. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, talked to In Depth with Francis Rose about cyber legislation in his office on Capitol Hill today. He says the landscape looks a little different for the legislation this time around.
March 25, 2014 -
In the fiscal 2015 budget request to Congress, the White House detailed 15 cross-agency priority goals and almost 100 agency-specific goals. The goals and new strategic plans are laying the groundwork for agencies to continue to improve mission delivery and operations over the next two years.
March 14, 2014 -
Senate lawmakers, White House officials and good government groups say the current way agencies develop regulations is broken. They agree it takes too long, is too complicated and not transparent enough.
March 12, 2014 -
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) tries to get to the bottom of why, after a decade, contracting officers still do not have quality information on how contractors perform. GSA said it has a plan to integrate 10 databases by 2018 through a series of incremental improvements.
March 11, 2014 -
The Army's audit arm finds huge accountability holes in a years-long program that recruited 130,000 soldiers. The program most likely violated federal law from the get-go, officials say.
February 05, 2014 -
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee debated an updated version of postal reform legislation Wednesday that would allow the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to restructure its health benefits program. Included in the revised postal reform bill from Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is a proposal that would create a new postal-only health plan within the broader Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
January 29, 2014 -
OMB reported agencies avoided spending $3 billion on travel and conferences in 2013 as compared to 2010. Senate lawmakers are concerned how to ensure agencies don't slide back into old habits of lavish spending on conferences.
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 -
In his nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday, John Roth, currently the director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations, said he aimed to turn around employee morale in the IG's office, which has been rocked by allegations of misconduct by the former acting head of the office. Roth, whose nomination has garnered near-universal support from both Republican and Democratic members of the committee.
January 08, 2014 -
As the use of reverse auctions continues to rise, the Government Accountability Office says agencies need more clear cut guidance to realize a maximum amount of savings.
December 11, 2013 -
Some agency leaders who would be charged with implementing the bill are unsure the DATA Act can be brought to life successfully. Officials said the government can improve how it makes data accessible and publishes procurement and other spending information. But the DATA Act may be asking for things that aren't pragmatically possible.
November 07, 2013 -
OMB is set to begin next week a 120-day review of three broad areas around security clearances. DoD and ODNI are pursuing initiatives to create a continuous evaluation process for employees with secret and top secret approvals. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members say recent events show the process is broken.
November 01, 2013 -
The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service says it can return to being profitable and begin to pay down its debt if Congress gives it the authority to overhaul its health benefits structure. Postmaster General Pat Donahoe told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday that launching a postal-specific health care plan would help save the agency $8 billion annually through 2016.
September 26, 2013 -
Suzanne Spaulding, the nominee to be the deputy undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate, told Senate lawmakers DHS had to reduce the number of federal devices that will be covered by the CDM program because of budget shortfalls.
September 20, 2013 -
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says a Senate bill aiming to overhaul the Postal Service's financial structure by providing the agency more flexibility to price its products is a good first step. Donahoe has been calling on Congress to approve comprehensive postal reform for much of the last two years. In that time, the cash-strapped agency has posted losses of $20 billion and defaulted on more than $11 billion in payments to prefund retiree health care costs. USPS is set to default on a $5.6 billion payment due Sept. 30 payment, Donahoe said.
September 19, 2013