House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced yesterday he believes President-elect Barack Obama may support a four-day work week for federal employees. Such an idea has been bounced around for months, and some agencies already allow employees to telework or adjust their schedules to allow for an extra day off a week. So, readers, would you welcome a 10-hour, four-day work week? Reactions I’ve received via e-mail are mixed. Some say they’d work harder in exchange for a three-day weekend every week, while others said the alternate work schedule would ease traffic in the Washington, D.C. area. Others criticized the proposal,…
Yearly Archives: 2008
President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday on CBS’s “Sixty Minutes” he would start making Cabinet picks “soon.” Soon it is. In just the three days since that interview aired, several names have been reported as likely candidates for key administration posts: Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. Eric Holder Jr., former number two at the Justice Department, to be Attorny General. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to be secretary of State, although it is still unclear whether Obama has actually offered the job to her, even after conflict-of-interest issues…
We reported earlier this month on the expected wave of “midnight regulation” at the end of the Bush administration. Agencies were supposed to issue all final regulations by Nov. 1, according to OMB, except in “extraordinary circumstances.” But experts predicted dozens of new rules would miss the deadline and slip out the door before Jan. 20 (as happens during every transition). Sure enough, there are more than a dozen new rules in today’s Federal Register, including at least two proposed rules (which agencies were supposed to stop creating by July 1). A few examples: A final rule from the EPA…
Campaigning for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain hasn’t cost Sen. Joe Lieberman his coveted chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this morning that Lieberman will retain his chairmanship, ending months of speculation of whether the Democrats would punish Lieberman for backing McCain publicly. Connecticut’s Lieberman is registered as an independent, though he caucuses with the Democrats. And it’s very clear that the vast majority of the Democratic Caucus wants to keep Sen. Lieberman as chairman of his committee, member of the Armed Services Committee, and that was done. It’s all…
CBO director Peter Orszag is the likely choice to head the Office of Management and Budget. The National Journal is reporting that President-elect Barack Obama will name Congressional Budget Office director Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB director will play a crucial role in the Obama administration, which inherits a $10 billion national debt and an annual deficit approaching $1 trillion. He will also be responsible for putting together Obama’s 2010 budget — and trying to push the 2009 budget through Congress before the current continuing resolution ends on March 6. Orszag has…
FedLine noted last week that Treasury secretary Henry Paulson had spent almost half of the $700 billion allocated as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or “the bailout,” as we like to call it). The Obama administration apparently gets to spend the other half. At a contentious House Financial Services committee hearing today, Paulson said he didn’t think spending the other $350 billion in the next two months was the best plan: We have decided the best course of action is to preserve half of the TARP fund for flexibility, and for the next administration. This sets up an…
You could say Sen. Ron Wyden is unhappy with Treasury’s actions on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “It’s like Dodge City before the marshals show up,” said Wyden, D-Ore., bemoaning the lack of oversight into Treasury’s spending of $700 billion intended to unfreeze the credit markets. This analogy was thrown out at today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing regarding the nomination of Neil Barofsky as the special inspector general for TARP. The committee doesn’t have jurisdiction to deliberate on Barofsky’s nomination — that falls to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday — but its members wanted to discuss their concerns with…
There has been a lot of attention on who is coming into government these days, but let us not forget who is leaving and where they are going. Retiring Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va, one of the few members of Congress deeply involved and interested in government information technology and procurement issues, is joining the consulting firm Deloitte, a government contractor offering financial and consulting services. While serving on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Davis has been panned by watchdogs for his close ties to industry and praised by industry for his understanding of their needs. According to Deloitte’s…
Existing agencies and departments could be called on to help implement new energy legislation, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., this morning. Speaking this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said agencies may be playing bigger roles in energy reduction, should energy legislation be passed. That could include administering programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon cap and trades. “A significant time and opportunity cost is associated with starting a new institution from scratch. We need to make good use of the existing institutions we have,” he…
I’ve received a lot of feedback today on one of this week’s front-page stories, about the U.S. Postal Service’s dire financial condition. Most commenters seem in favor of ending Saturday delivery, which experts say could happen in the next few years. A rural letter carrier who works six days a week wrote: It’s time to bite the bullet and change the old ways of 6-day delivery. I know that 4-10 hour days can never happen, but I would like maybe 5-8 hour day weeks. Having no family time by working 6 days is not fun. Another commenter suggested even more…