More lawmakers are calling on the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget to stop public-private competitions for federal work, which are conducted under OMB Circular A-76. House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo. and Readiness Subcommittee chairman Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, sent a pair of letters to OMB Director Peter Orszag and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on March 26. The letters urge them to stop using the circular and to conduct a review of competitive sourcing to ensure it’s the right thing for the government. The two House Democrats believe that competitive sourcing has become “a mandate…
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Can agencies handle the upcoming crush of stimulus grant applications? Apparently Grants.gov is already seeing a big spike in traffic. So OMB director Peter Orszag wants agencies to review their grant systems and make improvements to handle the increased workload. The deadline for that review is Friday. “We want to make sure that the systems are in place to handle what everyone expects will be an unprecedented number of grant applications,” Orszag said. I wonder, though, if some agencies will be reluctant to invest a lot of time and money in adding new capacity to their grants systems — because…
We reported back in January that the president planned to nominate Harvard professor Cass Sunstein to head OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. So where’s his nomination? The White House’s nominations list doesn’t mention Sunstein. (In fact, if you search for him on the White House Web site, you won’t get any results.) The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee tells me it hasn’t heard a word about Sunstein’s nomination. And the White House hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
After weeks of speculation, it’s official. The White House announced today that Vivek Kundra will be the government’s chief information officer. Kundra has served as the chief technology officer for Washington, D.C. since 2007. In his new role, he will direct governmentwide information technology investments, policy and spending oversight. When a governmentwide chief technology officer is named, they will work together to advance the president’s technology agenda. We’ll have more for you following a news conference with Kundra later today.
Update,10:40 a.m.: The President has made the big contracting reform announcement. He called the government’s contracting system “broken” and said it was “plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud.” He added: We need more competition for contracts and more oversight when they’re carried out. Ending the “unnecessary” use of sole-source and cost-based contracts, ensuring that government work isn’t improperly outsourced and opening more contracts to small businesses will save the government $40 billion of the $500 billion spent on contracts annually by increasing competition and reducing waste, he said. These estimated cost savings are part of the $2 trillion…
The Office of Management and Budget issued a 62-page memo (pdf) to agency heads today detailing how to manage the $787 billion in stimulus funding approved by lawmakers and signed into law by President Obama yesterday. Among other things, the guidance outlines the steps agencies must take to report their spending and program performance data to the Recovery.gov website that’s been created to track how every stimulus dollar is spent and how many jobs are created. The guidance also establishes requirements for agencies to meet the White House’s accountability objectives, OMB Director Peter Orszag said. Additional OMB guidance is forthcoming, Orszag said.
How will agencies spend stimulus money? Let me count the ways. According to Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., agencies have five different ways they can disburse their stimulus funds and meet tight spending deadlines in place under the bill: “By formula,†meaning agencies will use existing statutory requirements for programs like highway infrastructure investments or Medicaid to determine how much each state or municipality is entitled to. “By competition,†meaning states, localities or contractors will submit proposals for grants and contracts. “By demand†to programs with eligibility requirements, such as unemployment insurance, education grants, small business loans and food stamps. “By one-time…
Although the details of what should be the final stimulus bill have only just been made public, earlier this week the White House ordered agencies to get cracking on plans to manage and oversee the unprecedented amount of spending they’ll be asked to do. In a Feb. 9 memo first reported by Government Executive, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag wrote: Meeting these commitments will require sustained focus by managers throughout the federal government, particularly in planning, awarding, managing and overseeing contracts and grants. Departments and agencies should immediately begin developing plans…
The White House is reportedly close to naming a new Office of Management and Budget E-government and Information Technology Administrator. Vivek Kundra, the chief technology officer of Washington, D.C., is expected to be nominated to replace Karen Evans, according to Federal News Radio.
11:33 AM: One has to wonder if Killefer’s withdrawal will make it harder for Tom Daschle to win confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services. Here’s what we wrote about Killefer after her nomination last month. She was universally praised as a good pick for the new position. 11:15 AM: Killefer had a $924 tax lien placed on her house in 2005 because she failed to pay employment taxes for her household help. She paid the bill five months later. And that’s why she withdrew, according to a letter she sent to the White House. It’s a little surprising…