Monthly Archives: September, 2010

Making it a twofer kind of week for Jacob “Jack” Lew, the Senate Budget Committee voted 22-1 today to confirm him for the job of director of the Office of Management and Budget. But that’s where the good times ended, at least temporarily. Soon after, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said she will block a final confirmation vote by the full Senate until the Obama administration drops or makes major changes to its six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The moratorium, in effect since late May, could lead to thousand of job losses in…

The National Treasury Employees Union is the first union out of the gate responding to the GOP’s promise to freeze non-security federal hiring if they retake one or both houses of Congress. NTEU President Colleen Kelley just released a statement that said the freeze would “result in less effective, less efficient services being provided to the public.” Even under a hiring freeze the work of the federal government would still have to be done, as the American public expects. But without sufficient staffing, federal agencies would be forced to turn to unaccountable and costly private contractors. This would return our…

Faux newsman and comedian Stephen Colbert will appear before a House Judiciary Committee hearing tomorrow on illegal immigrants and farm labor. The details are kind of sketchy, but there are some reports that Colbert will testify in his on-screen character of a blustery conservative pundit. Now, I am a card-carrying member of the Colbert Nation, but this is a bad idea all around. And it shows just how broken Congress is, and how far the quality of hearings has fallen. I’ve covered Washington since 2002, and they seem to get worse and worse each year. It’s an open secret in…

After more than two years as acting U.S.  Comptroller General–a job that entails leading the Government Accountability Office-Gene Dodaro got the nod today from President Obama for a long-term appointment to the post. In a release, Obama said he intends to nominate Dodaro, a 37-year GAO veteran, for the position of Comptroller General. Dodaro has held the job on a provisional basis since March 2008; in a statement today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that she, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and a bipartisan congressional commission recommended Dodaro for the 15-year appointment. “As the comptroller general, Gene Dodaro…

The Senate Budget Committee plans a Thursday afternoon vote on the nomination of Jacob “Jack” Lew to become Office of Management and Budget Director,  a spokesman said this afternoon via e-mail. The vote is set for around 12:45 p.m.  Lew, who served an earlier turn as OMB director from 1998-2001, won unanimous approval from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. If the budget committee concurs Thursday, his nomination will go to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. President Obama announced in July that Lew was his choice to succeed Peter Orszag, but only submitted…

The Heritage Foundation today hosted a panel discussion on the public-private pay gap that didn’t really touch on a whole lot that hasn’t already been hashed out over the last several months. But it did yield this interesting exchange in response to a reporter’s question about the Obama administration’s claims that stimulus dollars saved state and local government jobs: Chris Edwards, Cato Institute: ‘What’s wrong with layoffs of state and local government workers? … Recessions create a sort of weeding out in the private sector, where companies lay off the least efficient workers, and then they’re ready to grow again…

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 9-0 this morning to confirm Jacob “Jack” Lew as the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lew’s nomination, announced by President Obama in July, must also win approval from the Senate Budget Committee before going to the full Senate.  As of this morning, the budget committee had not scheduled a vote, according to its web site. If confirmed, Lew, 55, would replace Peter Orszag, who resigned this summer. OMB Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients is meanwhile serving as acting director.

Don’t expect much to happen in this year’s fast dwindling congressional session,  but a bi-partisan group of senators today introduced legislation to bolster the Federal Protective Service, responsible for security at some 9,000 federal buildings. The bill would push FPS to hire 500 more full-time employees over the next four years, require the agency to do more to ensure the competence of contract guards, and mandate standards for checkpoint detection technologies for explosives and other threats at federal facilities, according to a news release from Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.…

Unenthusiastic about the U.S. Postal Service’s proposal for five-day-a-week mail service? Consider the possibility of every-other-day delivery. That’s today’s deep thought, courtesy of the USPS’ inspector general’s blog. We won’t even begin to list the politically influential groups that would pounce on the idea if the Postal Service sought to pursue it, but for the sake of argument, here goes: As the IG notes, a study earlier this year predicted that the average amount of daily mail per “delivery point” will fall from 3.8 pieces to 2.8 pieces by 2020. If that prediction holds good, then more households will receive…

Late-night comedy hosts/faux newsmen Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert last evening unveiled their plans to hold a “Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive.” The event, to be held Oct. 30 on the National Mall, is partly a parody of the “Restoring Honor” rally Glenn Beck held in August. But Stewart is only half-joking when he calls for a million-moderate march to find solutions to the problems our nation faces, without demonizing those who may disagree with us. Or in his words, “take it down a notch for America.” As his announcement made clear, shrill hysteria has become a…

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