Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday encouraged the GOP to defund federal agencies or missions in order to hamstring Obama administration policies. Gingrich, speaking to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, said: Stage 1 of the end of Obamaism will be a new Republican Congress in January that simply refuses to fund any of the radical efforts. […] Under our Constitution, the Congress doesn’t have to pass the money. If EPA gets no budget, it can’t enforce cap and trade. If HHS gets no budget… As former Bush speechwriter and exiled conservative commentator David Frum said, “In other words: Follow…
Monthly Archives: April, 2010
The Veterans Affairs Department and U.S. Postal Service are testing a program to allow veterans to mail back expired and unused prescription drugs for safe disposal. Veterans will receive special postage-paid envelopes and instructions with their prescriptions. Veterans with leftover medication can use the envelopes to mail back the drugs at any mailbox or post office. The drugs will be delivered to disposal sites approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and Drug Enforcement Agency and disposed of through incineration, chemical or thermal processes. The agencies announced the program in an April 8 news release. The pilot program will start with…
Agency budgets will stay flat for the next few years as the government faces an $11 trillion deficit, presenting fewer opportunities for vendors to do business with agencies. Vendors can separate themselves from the competition by identifying how they can save agencies money, said budget expert Stan Collender at INPUT’s Federal Market View 2010 conference today in Falls Church, Va. Vendors and contractors who know how to sell themselves to agencies can carve out a piece of the narrowing contracting pie, he sad. You should expect extreme scrutiny on the programs you care about. There’s almost no way around it…
Still a little fuzzy on how these labor-management partnerships are supposed to work? You might want to sign up for new training courses that will be offered in May and June by the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. FLRA and FMCS said yesterday that the two-day training programs are meant to teach federal managers and labor representatives about bargaining rights and obligations. Day One of each session will cover bargaining rights and obligations, including pre-decisional discussions and so-called permissive subjects. Day Two will teach you how to set up and maintain an effective labor-management…
Traffic’s gonna be ugly next week in Washington — way uglier than usual. President Obama and the leaders of more than 40 other countries will be meeting at the Washington Convention Center Monday and Tuesday for a major nuclear weapons summit, and several nearby streets will be completely closed. So the Office of Personnel Management is advising Washington-area federal employees to telework or use alternative work schedules on Monday and Tuesday. The road closures are likely to snarl traffic throughout downtown Washington, and parking restrictions, detoured buses and the temporary closure of the Mount Vernon Square Metro Station won’t help either. OPM…
Jacqueline Berrien was sworn in today as chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. President Obama installed Berrien in a recess appointment March 27. Berrien is the 14th person to head EEOC, and was previously the associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Former Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum was also sworn in as a commissioner today.
The General Services Administration said today that it’s awarded $4 billion in contracts for hundreds of building construction and renovation projects through the Recovery Act. More than 500 companies across the country have received contracts for the 391 projects GSA has funded so far since the Recovery Act was passed in February 2009. GSA overall received $5.5 billion in stimulus funds for construction projects, including $4 billion to improve the energy efficiency of existing federal buildings. Vice President Joe Biden praised GSA for stretching its Recovery Act dollars further than originally planned. Due to the slumping economy, bids came in lower than anticipated,…
The Health and Human Services Department will rely on the expertise of current federal employees to implement hundreds of changes mandated in the recently-signed health care law, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said April 6. “We’re not starting with the assumption that we have to build a new bureaucracy … One of the ways we’ll save money is by depending heavily on people and systems that are already in place. Our department already has great talent, resources, and knowledge of the health care system,” she said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C Sebelius’ speech was billed as a look…
President Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao, and other world leaders are scheduled to meet in Washington next week to discuss Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs. For feds and other Washingtonians, that’s going to mean several closed streets around the Washington Convention Center, restricted parking, detoured buses, and the temporary closure of the Mount Vernon Square Metro station. Check out the Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock here for more information, and start planning for your commutes next Monday and Tuesday to take longer than usual. Even if you’re not planning to go near the convention center, Dr. Gridlock notes that traffic problems will…
One of the Obama administration’s more … um … unusual appointments is rumored to be leaving the White House this summer. Kalpen Modi, AKA Kal Penn, AKA the perpetually high Kumar from the Harold and Kumar movies, will reportedly quit his job soon to start shooting the third in his series of stoner comedies: A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas. The White House and Penn are not confirming these rumors, but his co-star John Cho said the movie is pretty much a done deal. Kumar is currently the associate director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. He’s kept a low profile since…