While Nancy Fitchner’s SAVE Award winning idea to let veterans take home their unused prescriptions from Veterans Affairs Department hospitals will be the one included in the 2011 budget, that doesn’t mean the Office of Management and Budget is ignoring the 38,000 other ideas that were submitted to its first SAVE Award contest. On the same day Fitchner was honored at the White House, OMB Director Peter Orszag told agencies to adopt some “common sense ideas” that were submitted and can be implemented without congressional action. In a Dec. 21 memo, Orszag said in the short run agencies should: Make…
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The Senate approved dozens of President Barack Obama’s nominees this morning before departing for the holidays. The Senate will return on Jan. 21. Approved nominations include: Adele Logan Alexander as a member of the National Council on the Humanities; Paul T. Anastas as an assistant Environmental Protection Agency administrator; Anne Slaughter Andrew as ambassador to Costa Rica; Alberto Fernandez as ambassador to Equatorial Guinea; Michael Khouri as a Federal Maritime Commissioner; Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis as ambassador to Hungary; David Daniel Nelson as ambassador to Uruguay; John Norris as a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Robert Perciasepe as deputy…
President Barack Obama will officially name Howard Schmidt, President Bush’s former cybersecurity chief, as the White House “cyber czar,” the White House has confirmed. Schmidt spent about 18 months in the Bush administration, from December 2001 to May 2003, before returning to the private sector. He has also worked as Microsoft’s chief security officer, and eBay’s chief information officer; the White House says Schmidt’s close ties with industry were a factor in his appointment. The Washington Post first reported the news of Schmidt’s nomination last night. Schmidt was long considered one of the two front-runners for the job, which Obama…
Still snowed in from the weekend’s snowpocalypse? D.C.-area employees who cannot report to work Tuesday may request unscheduled leave for the entire day, according to an Office of Personnel Management announcement issued Monday afternoon. Employees do need to notify their supervisors of any leave. Emergency employees will be required to report to work as scheduled, according to an Office of Personnel Management memo. Non-essential federal employees received an excused day off on Monday as the area recovers from more than a foot and a half of snow.
The Great Blizzard of Aught-Nine — or as this reporter calls it, Snowmageddon* — has now closed the federal government for the first time in nearly seven years. The Office of Personnel Management this afternoon announced federal agencies in the Washington area will be closed on Monday. Non-emergency employees — including employees who already had preapproved leave scheduled for Monday — will be excused. Employees who have telework agreements in place may have to work from home or other telework site. Emergency employees must show up for work on time tomorrow. Sorry guys. Closing the entire government in the nation’s…
Sen. John McCain doesn’t know why the fiscally-strapped United States Postal Service sent him a folio of 2009 commemorative stamps, but he thinks the expenditure is “irresponsible.” In a Dec. 16 letter to USPS Postmaster General John Potter, McCain said the USPS has no business sending freebies to selected members of Congress while the organization has a $7 billion deficit and wants to close 170 post offices. Until the Postal Service no longer owes American taxpayers billions of dollars, I request that you refrain from spending limited Postal Service resources on unnecessary items such as engraved albums showcasing commemoratives (sic)…
President Barack Obama signed into law a 1.5 percent pay raise and an average 05. percent locality pay increase for federal civilian employees on Dec. 16. The raise takes effect January 1, 2010. The pay raise is included in a fiscal 2010 spending omnibus which funds the following agencies: Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments. The only appropriations bill not signed into law is Defense, which the Senate may pass today. The House passed it Dec. 16.
I did a quick post yesterday on Sen. George Voinovich’s hold on Rafael Borras, announced at yesterday’s DHS management hearing in the Senate Homeland Security committee. One other colloquy from that hearing worth mentioning: Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., got into a discussion with Elaine Duke, the current undersecretary for management, about how many contractors work at DHS. McCaskill has been trying to get a hard number for years; the department finally sent her a spreadsheet last month, which lists 10,520 contractors in the Washington area. But it turns out even that figure might not be accurate. Here’s Duke: The figures…
At a hearing today of the Senate Homeland Security committee, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced that he’s placed a hold on the nomination of Rafael Borras, President Barack Obama’s nominee for DHS undersecretary for management. I have a hold on Mr. Borras… I do not believe that individual is qualified to take this very, very important position that’s now being held by [Elaine Duke]. Elaine Duke, of course, is the current undersecretary for management. She was appointed by former President George W. Bush, but the law that created the position also allows the USM to stay in office until a…
Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen was hard at work judging the first annual Commandant’s Chili Cookoff on Dec. 10. It was all for a deliciously good cause: raising funds for the National Capital Area Combined Federal Campaign, according to Allen’s blog. And from his comments there, it sounds like it was tough: However, as much as I tried, I couldn’t match the intensity of Command Master Chief [Petty Officer Steven] Cantrell who obviously has grasp of the intricacies of fine chili. Ultimately, Allen chose U.S. Army Col. Kevin Hawkins’ steaming batch of Airborne Ranger Chili as the “Commandant’s Choice.” Hawkins’…