Plans for a consolidated home for the newest Cabinet agency, the Homeland Security Department, are laid out in impressive detail in a series of documents that were submitted to federal planning officials earlier this week. Here are some highlights: The master plan calls for 4.5 million square feet of new and existing office space, plus another 1.5 million square feet of parking. Most of the development will be located on the west campus of the former St. Elizabeths mental hospital, a 176-acre site in southeast Washington that predates the Civil War. However, about 750,000 square feet of office space and another 270,000 square…
Yearly Archives: 2008
The proof is out there…thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble took the first picture of a planet outside our solar system orbiting a star called Fomalhaut, NASA has announced. Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkley, and his team have been studying debris around the star since 2001. Obervations taken 21 months apart show that there is an object moving around that star the way Earth moves around the sun. To celebrate this federally supported discovery, we give you the following facts, courtesy of NASA: The planet called Fomalhaut b is located 25 light-years away from us in the costellation Piscis…
Turns out the historic inauguration celebration planned for President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20 has brought out the capitalist in many DC-area residents. With most hotel rooms already booked, many homeowners and renters in the nation’s capital are advertising their homes for rent for the festivities. As this story from the real estate website Urban Turf points out, going rates are steep. A 2,600-square-foot, three-bedroom condo about two miles from the White House is asking $10,000 for the week — double the monthly rent for a comparable property in the neighborhood. FedLine wonders if any federal employees are looking to get into…
It’s official: President-elect Barack Obama’s resigning his Senate seat effective this Sunday. Here’s Obama’s statement just e-mailed to the press from his transition team: It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate.  In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who’ve taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children’s future.  It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and…
It’s quite a busy morning here — details later — but some important news for the federal contracting community: FedLine has learned that the final “E-Verify rule” will be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register. The rule requires all federal contractors, and subcontractors, to verify the immigration status of their employees using the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify system. The controversial rule was first proposed this summer. We’ve posted a copy of the final rule; you can read it here.
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team yesterday announced a roster of 19 heavyweights who will conduct top-to-bottom reviews of federal agencies beginning next week. The agency review teams will complete a thorough review of departments, agencies and commissions to provide Obama and his advisers information need to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the Jan. 20 inauguration. As this press release  from the Obama transition Web site illustrates, most of the names should ring a bell to employees who were around during the previous Democratic administration under President Clinton. There’s Sally Katzen, who headed the Office of Information…
So last week we wrote that the General Services Administration was keeping quiet on where President-elect Obama’s transition headquarters was located. Apparently the D.C. traffic department didn’t get the memo that it was being left to the transition team to reveal the hideout. The District Department of Transportation released a detailed description of the location in a press release about traffic restrictions to protect the transition office. Here is what the DDOT had to say: D Street, NW between 5th and 6th is closed to vehicular traffic and parking is restricted. Northbound 6th Street St, NW, between Indiana Avenue and…
Last week you got to pick your new boss. Now the New York Times is letting you be the boss. The Times has posted an interactive feature that lets readers submit their selections for five major Cabinet posts: Defense Secretary, Secretary of State, Homeland Security Secretary, Attorney General and Treasury Secretary. It’s a lot of fun. Give it a whirl here. And don’t forget to tell us who you picked.
Looking for a job in the Obama administration? Then you should check out the Plum Book, the federal directory of leadership jobs released after every presidential election. The book was released today and contains more than 7,000 federal civil service leadership and support job descriptions in the legislative and executive branches. Of course, there’s no guarantee that all of the jobs will be filled when Obama takes office. It does, however, give you a look at the scope of opportunities available for you in certain sectors of the federal government (and could even help you get that ol’ resume ready!)…
The Treasury Department has spent most of the first $350 billion allocated by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, passed just over one month ago: Most of the spending — $250 billion — is going directly to banks. The banks get immediate cash; Treasury gets an ownership share of the bank. AIG got another $40 billion loan yesterday, on top of the $100 billion it’s already received. That’s $290 billion in spending since Oct. 3, an impressive $86,064 per second. And it leaves just $60 billion; most experts I’ve talked with say that money will be gone soon. What does that…