Members of Congress were quick to weigh in on the U.S. Postal Service’s downsizing plans Thursday. And for the most part, they were not happy. “This plan makes no sense at all and should be abandoned,” argued Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, where a mail processing plant is slated to close. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is “barreling ahead to implement drastic cost-cutting measures” before regulators give their views, objected Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, which would lose two of its three plants to those measures. The Postal Service “should focus on common sense solutions that improve its fiscal solvency” instead of putting…
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Today brings bad news for thousands of U.S. Postal Service workers; just out is a list of more than 220 mail processing plants slated for closure or consolidation. Federal Times will have an updated story on its web site shortly, but in the meantime, here is a link to the list. According to USPS officials, the downsizing will eliminate about 30,000 career positions and 5,000 non-career jobs, with closings to start as early as May and to wrap up by next year.
Regulations.gov, the federal government’s main pathway for online rulemaking, has gotten a user-friendly makeover, the Office of Management and Budget announced this week. The revamp follows President Obama’s executive order last year promoting more public participation and includes “innovative new search tools, social media connections and better access to regulatory data,” Cass Sunstein, administrator of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said in an official blog post. You can read Sunstein’s post here; one innovation that he highlights is the ability to search regulations by broad categories such as as “defense, law enforcement and security” and “banking and financial.” …
Postal Regulatory Commission Ruth Goldway has replied to a senator’s inquiry about her travel practices, publicly posting her response and a host of supporting documents on the agency’s web site. In a letter last week to Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., Goldway attached a summary of her trips since becoming PRC chair in August 2009, and for good measure included itineraries and agendas, a synopsis of the commission’s travel policies and a listing of travel by her two immediate predecessors as chairman. “This information demonstrates that commission travel is in support of statutory obligations, performed in a cost-efficient manner and benefits…
There’s been no official announcement (to the best of FedLine’s knowledge, anyway), but the federal government now has a new top performance official, at least temporarily. “Acting chief performance officer” was the title that Lisa Brown used in a Friday post on the Office of Management and Budget’s official blog. Brown, whose Obama administration assignments have hitherto included assistant to the president and staff secretary, helped assemble the White House’s blueprint for reorganization of federal trade and export agencies. Until recently, the federal chief performance officer was Jeff Zients, who also served as OMB’s deputy director for management. But Zients…
A Defense Department board led by Chief Information Officer Teri Takai will serve as the “single senior governance forum” to address information technology, IT acquisition and cyber issues across DoD. In a Feb. 12 memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter included a revised charter for the DoD CIO Executive Board, which he said would “re-focus and strengthen” the board to provide leadership and guidance on certain departmentwide issues. The memo, effective immediately, follows recommendations by the independent Defense Business Board urging DoD senior leadership to give Takai more clout. The charter gives the board authority to “decide on matters brought before it,…
The administration on Friday launched a new beta website called BusinessUSA.gov to simplify online interaction between businesses and the government. BusinessUSA.gov matches “businesses with the services relevant to them, regardless of where the information is located or which agency’s website, call center, or office they go to for help,” federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel said in a blog post Friday. The website is currently in a beta version but will evolve to incorporate user feedback. Business owners can browse the site and customize their search results to receive information about topics of interest, such as federal contracting, grants, or opportunities that meet…
The Senate has yet to begin a formal debate over a proposed postal overhaul, but the jawboning is already well under way. The latest development: 27 senators led by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote the bill’s sponsors today urging them to consider some “significant improvements.” Such as protection for rural post offices; barring the U.S. Postal Service from a change in delivery service standards that could lead to the closing of up to 252 mail processing plants; and requiring the continuation of six-day-a-week mail delivery for at least another four years. They also call for creation of a blue-ribbon commission that…
Cybersecurity legislation introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., on Tuesday empowers the Department of Homeland Security to regulate cyber standards for the nation’s critical infrartucture systems. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 calls on the DHS secretary to work with the private sector in identifying systems that pose the greatest risk and could cause death, severe economic damage or national security risks if attacked. DHS and the private sector would be responsible for creating performance standards for owners and operators of power grids and other systems if none exist. Industry would have to decide how best to meet the performance standards in…
The federal information technology budget for 2013 would invest in cybersecurity while remaining relatively flat overall, under the president’s plan. Overall IT funding for civilian agencies and the Defense Department would decrease 1 percent from $79.8 billion this year to $78.9 billion in 2013. Here are the winners and losers in the proposed budget: Biggest increases (Agency, proposed funding for fiscal 2013) *U.S. Agency for International Development, $112.4 million, 25% increase *Treasury Department, $3.6 billion, 11% increase *Education Department, $578 million, 11% increase *Small Business Administration, $112 million increase, 10% increase Biggest cuts *Housing and Urban Development Department, $392 million, 20%…