The new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee calls the tax code a “rotten dysfunctional mess.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wants comprehensive tax reform. But he’ll settle for extending more than 50 expiring tax breaks. Bernie Becker writes about tax issues for The Hill Newspaper.

President Obama has asked agencies to consider hiring the long-term unemployed. Will that strategy really get you the best possible people? Sam Davis is vice president of AMA Enterprise Government Solutions. He has the pros and cons and some good advice.

Training and experience are good measures to base a hiring decision on, but they’re not everything. The Merit Systems Protection Board has taken a look at T&E assessments and how effective they are across government. John Ford is a senior research psychologist for the Office of Policy and Evaluation at the MSPB. He was project leader on the study.

NASA ended its space shuttle program three years ago. Today, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is still having growing pains. The federal government uses about half of the space. The rest is in limbo.

The situation is a case study of challenges that confront agencies when they decide to close down programs and board up facilities. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) describes what the complex looks like today.