Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
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FEMA has recovered just $3 million of $643 million in potentially improper disaster relief aid since Hurricane Katrina. But its attempts to recoup the money are setting off one senator and threatening to erupt into a public relations snafu.
October 21, 2011 -
The Acquisitions Reform Bill would require more robust use of Federal Strategic Sourcing vehicles — which allow the government to consolidate its shopping lists and buy in bulk, rather than have each agency pursue its own procurements.
October 20, 2011 -
A Senate committee is recommending the super committee consider one more year of a federal pay freeze, increases to retirement contributions and a 15 percent cut to contracting at agencies.
October 14, 2011 -
The Postal Service would get seven more weeks to pay a $5.5 billion debt to the Treasury under the continuing resolution passed Monday by the Senate. A House version includes the same provision. The bill is due on Friday.
September 27, 2011 -
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to hold the number of federal employees stable for the foreseeable future. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he also wants to look at the size of the agency\'s contractor workforce as well. The freeze was approved in the committee\'s first-ever DHS reauthorization bill.
September 22, 2011 -
Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins said the agency has not created an IT management and oversight plan. Without a comprehensive model on IT, the agency cannot fix the way it responds to disasters.
July 19, 2011 -
An in-depth analysis report by a Senate committee exposes inadequacies in spending on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America, which may affect future expansion to Afghanistan.
June 08, 2011 -
OFPP administrator Dan Gordon told a Senate committee that a new rule to add more oversight to multi-agency contracts should be out soon. Agencies wanting to develop new multiple award contracts will have to justify them before going forward. OFPP is also trying to use strategic sourcing to take advantage of the government\'s buying power.
May 26, 2011 -
The White House\'s draft bill includes many similarities with the one sponsored by the Sens. Lieberman, Collins and Carper. The biggest issues are around the President\'s powers over the Internet during emergencies and whether there should be a Senate-confirmed cyber coordinator at DHS. Senate Majority Leader Reid is making comprehensive cyber legislation a priority this session.
May 23, 2011 -
Agencies asked 125 annuitants for help last year with Army leading the way, bringing 44 retired federal workers back to help with acquisition processes.
May 19, 2011 -
By Jason Miller Executive Editor Federal News Radio The Senate yesterday approved the ability of vendors to protest task and delivery orders from civilian agencies worth more than $10 million to the Government Accountability Office…
May 13, 2011 -
OMB\'s Jeff Zients told Senate lawmakers that his office has held 250 meetings to discuss agency reorganization ideas. Zients also said the lack of funding for e-government programs will slow the advancement of transparency websites.
May 11, 2011 -
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee agreed to legislation Wednesday that would take roughly 200 presidential appointees out of the Senate confirmation process. The vast number of Senate-confirmable positions has become unwieldy for the upper chamber, and has deterred too many qualified candidates from accepting executive branch appointments, committee leaders said.
April 14, 2011 -
The agreement between the White House and Congressional leaders to fund the government through the remainder of 2011 would strip the E-Government fund of more than three quarters of its dollars. The fund, managed by the General Services Administration, pays for several of the Obama Administration\'s government transparency websites.
April 12, 2011 -
Several sites, including Data.gov, the IT Dashboard and the FEDRamp cloud efforts, could be shut down in the next two months if the administration doesn\'t get more money under the E-government fund. In all, nine sites are on the list to be discontinued by July 30 if OMB doesn\'t find money to keep it going. Experts say OMB has several ways to keep the sites up, including pass-the-hat among agencies.
March 31, 2011