Senate
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Despite being under investigation, Alejandro Mayorkas testified today on becoming the next deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Mayorkas said that claims he exercised undue influence on cases in his agency, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, are false.
July 25, 2013 -
Charles Edwards, the Homeland Security Department's deputy inspector general and acting IG, calls recent allegations of nepotism and improper travel "baseless" and says he's convinced a Senate subcommittee investigation will clear his name. Speaking exclusively to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp, Edwards said he has provided complete documentation to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight.
July 23, 2013 -
Legislators want to strengthen OPM's ability to oversee the security clearance process to thwart under-qualified candidates from obtaining and keeping security clearances.
July 22, 2013 -
Top officials at the Treasury Department and the General Services Administration say budget cuts being considered by House lawmakers - and that have since adopted by the House Appropriations Committee - would erode their agencies' missions. In sharply divided vote mostly along partisan lines Wednesday, the committee approved the fiscal 2014 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill.
July 18, 2013 -
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel put the ball in Congress' court this week when he released details of how the Pentagon would manage billions of dollars in cuts if sequestration continues into fiscal 2014 and beyond. But, there's not yet anything close to a winning strategy in Congress to avert or replace the automatic budget cuts.
July 11, 2013 -
The annual appropriations process is a complex and arduous Washington practice. But sequestration has snarled the process this year. As appropriators work to set agency funding, the House and the Senate disagree about how to account for the cuts in next year's spending plans.
July 07, 2013 -
Patrick McFarland, the inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed to a Senate subcommittee Thursday that his office has been investigating USIS, the government's largest contractor for background-investigation services, since late 2011. He said at least 18 security clearance investigators have been convicted of falsifying investigations since 2007. McFarland said there may be "considerably more" fraud that hasn't been uncovered due to "alarmingly insufficient oversight" of the security-clearance process.
June 20, 2013 -
GSA acting administrator Dan Tangherlini said the agency wants to work with Congress to offer creative ways for agencies to maximize their assets. In its own headquarters, the GSA is using modern techniques to save space.
June 19, 2013 -
President Barack Obama's pick to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) pledged to clear up delays in the regulatory process if confirmed by the Senate. Appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday, Howard Shelanski said improving the timeliness of OIRA's work -- which has come in for criticism from Republican lawmakers and transparency groups, alike -- is among his top priorities.
June 12, 2013 -
President Barack Obama recently nominated the manager of his re-election campaign to head up the Office of Personnel Management. But who is Katherine Archuleta and what can feds expect from the woman chosen to manage the federal workforce? Archuleta's former boss at the Transportation Department tells Federal News Radio what he thinks she'll bring to the table.
May 31, 2013 -
The Obama administration's proposed fiscal 2014 budget called for consolidating or eliminating 116 of the government's 226 STEM initiatives and centralizing the coordination of STEM programs under just three agencies: the Education Department, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. The administration's STEM proposal is one of the government's first visible steps in reversing some of the duplication that riddles the federal landscape and which some lawmakers have seized on as examples of government waste.
May 17, 2013 -
The top lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee have called on the Defense Department to detail how it will cut billions more from its budget if sequestration continues into next year. In a letter dated May 2, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the committee, asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to provide a "package of reductions" to the department's proposed 2014 budget.
May 07, 2013 -
Two senators from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee want to change Senate rules in an attempt to make sure new federal programs or initiatives in proposed legislation don't overlap with existing efforts. Earlier this month, two House members introduced a measure that would require House committees of jurisdiction to hold oversight hearings on an annual report from the Government Accountability Office detailing government duplication.
April 29, 2013 -
The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air. In today's news, the IRS is claiming success in a nationwide crackdown on suspected identity thieves and GSA wants to bolster security outside the the Commerce Department's headquarters.
April 25, 2013 -
A trio of lawmakers from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want the Government Accountability Office to examine whether the General Schedule system for federal employees needs an update. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), said the watchdog agency's review would aid the lawmakers in evaluating "the appropriateness of the General Schedule (GS) as a pay scale for today's workforce."
April 22, 2013