A new Capitol Visitor Center. The center opened for media tours today, giving reporters and photographers their first chance to see the space that will soon greet every visitor to the Capitol. The space is located underground on the east front of the Capitol, but soaring skylights give you close up views of the Capitol dome, making you hardly feel like you’re in a basement or bunker. The CVC, which opens to the public Dec. 2, has been decades in the making. Like any government project, it took years to get underway, with construction starting six years ago. The initial…
Monthly Archives: November, 2008
I’m at an event on economic stimulus and financial regulation sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The group is projecting a staggering $1 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2009, driven largely by the cost of reviving the slumping economy: bailouts for financial firms, diminished tax returns and an economic stimulus package. The irony is that, while government spending as a whole is skyrocketing, individual agency budgets may not see that much of an increase. That’s because much of the new spending is either handed out directly in a stimulus package — to states, businesses and taxpayers —…
As if the fact the General Services Administration is supplying 120,000 square feet of office space to house the Obama transition team isn’t evidence enough of the scale of the event, FedLine has more numbers for you to chew on. The office space is outfitted with enough desks, computers, telephones, chairs and assorted other office supplies to support 500 people, said Gail Lovelace, GSA’s chief human capital officer, who is overseeing the transition. And Congress has appropriated $5.3 million to pay for it all. Lovelace said the exact location of the office is still being kept under wraps because the…
With his approval ratings at historic lows and the nation’s focus shifting to the incoming Obama administration, President Bush has a tough time garnering much attention these days. But hundreds of career and political employees who work at the Executive Office of the President gave Bush a rousing reception yesterday on the South Lawn of the White House. Flanked by his Cabinet and joined by First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and Cheney’s wife Lynne, Bush congratulated Barack Obama for winning the election and urged federal employees to make the transition to a new administration as smooth as possible. Joking about his graying hair and First…
President-elect Barack Obama just held his first news conference, and I was struck by how much attention is focused on him — and how little on President Bush. Obama had to remind reporters a half-dozen times that “I am not the president until Jan. 20.” Any sitting president is a lame duck between the election and the inauguration, but it seems Bush has become especially marginalized. How does this impact your agency? Do you feel like the focus on the next administration means a lack of direction at the end of this administration?
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced this afternoon he’s stepping down as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, effective Jan. 6, 2009. But Byrd, who’s never know for his succinctness, started out his statement with a little (unintentional?) humor. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.†Which, of course, is a verse from Ecclesiastes from the Bible. But it’s also a lyric from the famous song by the sixties group The Byrds. The Byrds? Sen. Byrd? Oh, we’re just cracking ourselves up here. But seriously folks, Byrd’s expected to take on an honorary…
Congress’ watchdog arm, the Government Accountability Office, put out a list today of the 13 most urgent issues facing President-elect Barack Obama and the incoming Congress. The list includes such no-brainers as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, oversight of the financial market, and protecting the homeland. But it also includes a few head-scratchers — transitioning to digital television and carrying out the 2010 Census, to name two — that are even more curious when you consider what didn’t make GAO’s cut. Things like securing energy independence, reforming Medicare and Social Security, and providing health care to all Americans. So what gives? Chris…
So is Sen. Joe Lieberman losing his Senate Government Oversight Committee chairmanship? If he knows, he’s not saying. Lieberman, I-Conn., called a news conference this afternoon. Many reporters were hoping he’d reveal his future in the Senate. After Lieberman campaigned heavily for Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., many expected Lieberman to lose his chairmanship of the committee. Lieberman has caucused with Democrats as a senator. Sen . (Harry) Reid (D-Nev.) and I have just concluded what I could call a very good conversation between two colleagues and friends. I want to spend some time in the next few days thinking…
President-elect Obama has been touting transparency on the campaign trail. Many people know he was the Democratic voice behind the legislation that created the easy to peruse contracts and grants database, USASpending.gov. But the acquisition community is already moving ahead with its own attempt at improving contract transparency: the next generation of the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. In the spirit of open government, the acquisition community is inviting user feedback concerning what improvements to the central procurement database are needed. The current iteration of FPDS is pretty hard to navigate and takes a long time to run requests. There…
The trickle of Bush administration officials headed for the door is likely to become a flood now that the election’s over. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers today became the first major appointee to resign after Barack Obama’s victory. Her last day will be Nov. 15. Myers’ nearly three-year tenure at ICE has been dogged by controversy, though she eventually won over some skeptics.