Buildup over a draft executive order that would require contractors to disclose their political contributions has led one voice for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to mimic the President’s charge in Libya. “We will fight it through all available means,” the Chamber of Commerce’s top lobbyist R. Bruce Josten told the New York Times Tuesday. In a reference to the White House’s battle to depose Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, he said, “To quote what they say every day on Libya, all options are on the table.” The proposal, leaked last week by a former Federal Election Commission official, would…
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After voicing worries about the government’s reaction to the WikiLeaks breaches, a coalition of nine advocacy groups recently got a reply from White House budget director Jack Lew. At least one, though, found the answer a bit puzzling. The coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association and the Project on Government Oversight, had written Lew in January after his office posted a long checklist of instructions on how agencies should assess procedures for protecting classified information. By a literal reading, those instructions appeared to require any agency with classification authority to profile employees for “trustworthiness,”…
Following up on concerns about decreased funding for the General Services Administration’s e-government fund, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., has asked the federal chief information officer to detail how this will impact transparency efforts. In an April 21 letter to Vivek Kundra, Carper expressed his concern for the future of public websites like the ITDashboard, USASpending.gov and data.gov that rely on e-government funds to operate. Lawmakers slashed e-government funding from $34 million to $8 million in the 2011 spending bill. The dashboard, which updates the public on the performance of major information technology projects, coupled with in-depth reviews of at-risk projects, has saved…
Teri Takai says she isn’t naïve about the challenges in executing departmentwide information technology reforms at the Defense Department. As DoD’s chief information officer, she’s up against more than 7 million computers and devices connected to 15,000 networks, 772 data centers and IT infrastructure that is scattered across DoD services. There’s also the challenge of garnering support from services’ CIOs, who have their own pots of money for IT projects and programs. “It isn’t like I can sort of sit in my office and put a directive out and everybody goes “oh that’s a really great idea Teri, I…
Remember the contingency plans that agencies have to prepare for the event of a government shutdown? Those documents have never been more accessible–now that the immediate threat of a halt to agency operations has passed. Under a “What’s New” section of its web site dated April 14, the Office of Management and Budget has posted links to more than 50 agency plans. Had the government closed, for example, more than three-quarters of employees in the Executive Office of the President would have been furloughed. At least for now, the prospect of a shutdown has receded since Congress last week approved…
Talk about the perfect Happy Friday story: It turns out that a recently issued postage stamp features a Statue of Liberty image taken from a replica in a Las Vegas casino. According to The New York Times, the Postal Service got the image from a photo service, unaware that its version of Liberty was a flashy stand-in for the iconic figure that has stood on Ellis Island in New York Harbor since 1886. By contrast, the replica at the New York-New York casino in Vegas has been around just since 1997. Linn’s Stamp News, a stamp collectors’ publication, broke the story. The…
Like a lot of reporters, I can’t claim arithmetic as one of my stronger skill sets. But I feel a bit better about my math chops after reading that the Department of Homeland Security recently had to correct a six-figure goof related to the number of DHS contract employees. The admission comes in a questionnaire from Rafael Borras, nominated to become the department’s under secretary for management, to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In January, DHS quietly informed Congress that the original estimate for the size of its contract staff—developed, of course, by a contractor—was overstated by…
More evidence–as if more were needed–that this government spending standoff is getting serious: the Office of Management and Budget has just posted a 16-page memo for shutdown planning on its web site. Lots of technical advice for agencies on topics like travel, IT operations and contracting. The latest stopgap spending resolution expires at midnight Friday. If Congress appears unlikely to enact a new one Saturday, OMB will issue instructions the same day “for agencies to proceed with their shutdown implementation,” Director Jack Lew wrote in the memo. On one burning question, OMB leaves it up to agencies to decide whether…
If the government shuts down this week, most Department of Homeland Security employees will continue working. DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie said 80 percent of the department’s 230,000 workforce will continue to carry out mission critical duties, such as securing the borders, screening cargo and airline passengers and operating and securing systems that support these activities. “We’re working with the guidance, and we’re working with our business and mission partners to identify those systems that have to stay up,” said Richard Spires, DHS’ chief information officer. “We’re prepared, and we will keep those systems running.” That includes determining which contracts are mission critical.…
In an interview with CNN, David Stockman, former Office of Management and Budget director in the Reagan Administration, was asked if he thinks congressional leaders will forgo a budget deal and allow a government shutdown to happen this week. And if a shutdown does happen, what would it accomplish? Stockman’s response: “The Republicans need to man-up and shut the government down. They have been bloviating for 30 years about cutting spending and have done almost nothing.” He went on to say: “And the government needs a shut-down crisis because both parties are dream walking. Sadly enough, we actually need a violent spasm in the…