Sen. Chuck Grassley asked the Office of Management and Budget this week for internal communications that could show who is trying to limit a rule that would require federally-funded health researchers to disclose their corporate ties. A recent article in Nature magazine said that OMB, which is reviewing the proposal, is gutting the rule of the requirement that researchers’ outside financial interests be posted on a publicly available website, instead allowing institutions to choose their own disclosure methods. That will likely to make it much harder for members of the public to find these details, Ned Feder, a senior staff scientist with the Project on Government Oversight, told Nature. …
Monthly Archives: August, 2011
The White House will announce today that former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel will replace Vivek Kundra as the federal chief information officer, according to an administration official. VanRoekel left his post as managing director of the Federal Communications Commission in June for an executive director position with the U.S. Agency for International Development. His Twitter account, @stevenvDC, has already been updated to reflect his new position as federal CIO. The New York Times reported the news early Thursday. At the FCC, VanRoekel headed the agency’s new media efforts and the redesign of FCC.gov, which operates in a cloud computing environment. Prior to…
The General Services Administration awarded 599 small businesses a place on its new governmentwide contract for information technology services, the agency announced today. The Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resources for Services (STARS) II contract allows agencies to buy up to $10 billion in IT services, such as IT helpdesk support, cybersecurity, custom computer programming, and computer operations maintenance. The cost of the services offered are prenegotiated to be at least 10 percent less than the initial prices offered to the government. Agencies used GSA’s two preceeding IT contracts for more than $5 billion in services over the past decade. The contract specifically went to businesses that are considered small and…
Social Security payments scheduled for Wednesday will be disbursed on time, Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue announced Tuesday. Up until late last week, it wasn’t clear if lawmakers would strike a deal to increase the debt limit, causing concern for recipients of Social Security and VA benefits who probably would not have received payments. Payments set for Aug. 10, 17th and 24th will also go out on time. “I am happy to announce there will be no delay in the payment of August Social Security benefits,” said Astrue, “which should be a relief to those people who were concerned about their…
The debt limit deal is in the Senate, and President Obama is expected to sign it. Which means all this debt limit craziness is over … right? Here is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) on Fox News with Neil Cavuto. (My own emphasis has been added). MCCONNELL: It set the template for the future. In the future, Neil, no president — in the near future, maybe in the distant future — is going to be able to get the debt ceiling increased without a re-ignition of the same discussion of how do we cut spending and get America headed…
It wasn’t exactly a primal scream, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sounded decidedly ticked this afternoon over the congressional standoff that has idled almost 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration workers. That impasse is now in its tenth day, with no apparent end in sight. Amping up the urgency is that Congress is set to leave by week’s end for its customary August break. Meaning that, without a quick resolution, those FAA employees could stay furloughed without pay through at least Labor Day. Also affected, according to LaHood, are some 70,000 construction workers employed on FAA contracts snarled by the dispute. During this afternoon’s…
As of today, the Information Security Oversight Office has a new director in the person of John P. Fitzpatrick, a former top security official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. ISOO, part of the National Archives and Records Administration, is a small but critical cog in oversight of the government’s security classification system. The agency has also been charged with bringing order to the mishmash of agency approaches for handling controlled unclassified information. “A strong advocate for information sharing and protection, he has demonstrated his ability to lead and oversee change both within and beyond the intelligence…
The Postal Regulatory Commission has laid out an expedited schedule for considering the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to close up to about 3,650 post offices. The bottom line is that the public phase of the commission’s review will take about three months, with an advisory opinion presumably coming fairly soon after. USPS attorneys filed the request for the opinion Wednesday, one day after releasing the list of retail facilities that the agency wants to study for shuttering. Nothing will be closed before late December, according to the filing, but members of Congress are already weighing in. At a Thursday confirmation…