Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, one of President-elect Barack Obama’s top military advisers, is said to be the pick to lead NASA. Our colleagues at Space News were the first to report the story yesterday. Gration is a decorated fighter pilot and held senior policy positions in the military, but does not have a space background, according to Space News. No word on whether current NASA administrator Mike Griffin’s wife has ended her campaign to convince Obama her husband should stay.
Monthly Archives: January, 2009
Back in November, Gregg wrote about the potential for a bailout of the Postal Service, which had a $2.8 billion shortfall last year. Well someone has finally taken notice. And that someone is Lewis Black of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Federal Times does not endorse the views of Lewis Black, but we are a little excited about the screen time on the Daily Show. Â Back in Black – Bailouts Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c
When President Bush leaves the White House on Jan. 20, he’ll have some comfortable digs to work out of in Dallas. The General Services Administration has secured 8,000 square feet of office space at Sherry Lane Place, a highrise office building in downtown Dallas, for the soon-to-be former presisdent, GSA said yesterday afternoon in a press release. The 10-year lease will cost taxpayers $311,600 annually — that’s $38.95 per square foot, more than twice the average Dallas office rent, according to this Bloomberg report. The size and cost of Bush’s new office space is in keeping with the space secured for…
Peter Orszag appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee for a hearing on his nomination as OMB director. It was almost as painless as yesterday’s hearing before the Senate Budget committee. Senators focused mostly on government management issues, and Orszag made a few notable statements. First, though, a word about the budget. Orszag reiterated, once again, that the Obama administration will release a 2010 budget in “mid-to-late February.” One new detail: He said the budget will include “some program eliminations.” No word on which programs, though.
Sure, we’ve been reporting for some time on the government’s requirement to purchase products made from agricultural or biological materials (see here, here and here). But Sen. Tom Harkin thinks it’s time for an update. During today’s confirmation hearing for former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to head the Agriculture Department, the Iowa Democrat said he will use his position as chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to address the biobased procurement requirement, which Harkin inserted into the 2002 Farm Bill. Specifically, Harkin said he would call every Cabinet secretary before the committee to ask…
The speculation that President-elect Barack Obama has all but named National Zoo Director John Berry to be the next Office of Personnel Management director may be a little premature. Federal Times has just learned that Berry told a Senate staffer yesterday that Obama has not offered him the job yet, though he has been engaged in preliminary discussions with the transition team. So while it looks like Berry is indeed in the running, OPM is not as close to having a new boss as we thought yesterday.
We’ve been wondering why the Senate Finance committee took so long to schedule a confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner. It may have to do with a tax problem: Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early this decade, and also faces questions about the employment papers of a former household employee, suddenly complicating what had seemed to be an easy confirmation process in the Senate. Hard to know what to make of this. Geithner repaid the back taxes, with interest, after the Obama…
President-elect Barack Obama today named William Corr as the nominee for deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr, currently the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, served as chief of staff to former Secretary Donna Shalala during her tenure at HHS. He also served as the deputy assistant secretary for health and counselor to the secretary. He also has a solid working relationship with HHS Secretary-designate Tom Daschle, having served as chief counsel and policy director for former Senate Minority Leader Daschle for two years. In a statement, Obama praised Corr’s experience and said…
The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports this morning that John Berry, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, has accepted an offer by President-elect Barack Obama to become director of the Office of Personnel Management. Berry previously served as executive director of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the nation’s wildlife, and before that, as assistant secretary of the Interior Department for management. In the mid-1990s he directed government relations for the Smithsonian and, between 1985 and 1994, served as legislative director for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Among the…
Politicians can’t get enough of squawking about the debacle that is the Bowl Championship Series. First President-elect Barack Obama bemoaned the system of selecting a national “champion” for college football. (Unsure how the BCS works? Click here.) Now Congress is looking to get in on the action (because, you know, there’s not much else going on right now). Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, may have some bitter feelings about Texas being shut out of the BCS title game, because he introduced HR 390 in the House last week. Let’s read the bill’s description: “A bill to prohibit, as an unfair and…