The Office of Personnel Management is conducting yet another workforce-related survey, this time with the CIO Council. Under the administration’s IT reform plan, OPM is taking the lead on creating a specialized career path for program managers. The survey, in part, will aid OPM in the process and provide strategies “to recruit, retain, develop, and manage a fully trained and qualified IT workforce,” according to information posted on CIO.gov. From Jan. 18 to Feb. 25, all federal civilian information technology workers will have access to the 2011 IT Workforce Capability Assessment via CIO.gov. Results will help agencies: – Identify the…
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President Obama has settled on policy veteran Heather Higginbottom as the new deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Higginbottom, a former aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who also was policy director for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, currently serves as deputy director at the White House Domestic Policy Council. “She understands the relationship between numbers on a ledger and the lives of real people,” Obama said when announcing her nomination for the OMB slot Friday, along with several other appointments. “As we make cuts that are necessary to rein in the deficit, I want to make sure I’ve got Heather…
None too soon for the Obama administration, Jack Lew was sworn in early Friday afternoon as Office of Management and Budget director after winning Senate confirmation the preceding evening, according to a spokesman. Lawmakers acted Thursday after Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., dropped a hold placed on Lew’s nomination in late September in a bid to force the administration to end a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration yielded more than a month ago, but Landrieu had continued the hold, saying she wanted an “action plan” for putting the industry back to work. In a news…
Congrats to Trudy Givens of Portage, Wisconsin. The long-time Bureau of Prisons employee is this year’s SAVE award winner for her suggestion that the government stop printing and mailing daily hard copies of the Federal Register to almost 10,000 federal employees who are probably using the on-line version anyway. Givens won out over three other finalists with almost 20,000 votes, according to a blog post Monday by Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients. The runners-up were Agriculture Department employee Marjorie Cook, Pat Behe of the Department of Homeland Security, and Thomas Koenning from the Department of Labor.…
In proposed guidance posted in Tuesday’s Federal Register, the Office of Management and Budget is elaborating on President Obama’s June memorandum barring lobbyists from serving on federal advisory commissions and other boards and commissions. In keeping with Obama’s memo, registered lobbyists already on such panels will not be booted immediately, but cannot be reappointed once their current terms are up, according to the guidance, which is presented in handy question-and-answer format. No waivers are permitted and anyone who becomes a federally registered lobbyist while serving on a federal board or commission will have to resign or face removal. One small…
The Obama administration has made measurable strides in simplifying the federal hiring process, Jeffrey Zients, acting chief of the Office of Management and Budget, said Monday afternoon. More than 80 percent of job descriptions are now “short and written in plain English,” compared to 19 percent before the start of an administration streamlining drive, Zients told attendees at an Excellence in Government conference at the Ronald Reagan Building. Almost 70 percent of job postings no longer require essays, he said, up from about 40 percent beforehand. “Improving the hiring process will help us attract great talent,” Zients said. His presentation,…
It’s happy trails time for OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass, who plans to leave the influential watchdog group he founded in 1983 to head the Bauman Foundation, according to a mass e-mail sent out this afternoon. From his experience in the nonprofit sector, Bass said in the message, “I have learned there comes a time when an organization’s founder needs to move on in order to strengthen the very organization the founder loves.” Bass added that he is “confident that the group’s commitment to high-quality work and smart policy advocacy will continue, and I have no doubt that OMB…
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 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 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.