I’m skimming over a conference report from the Senate Financial Services and General Government appropriations committee (really a fun way to spend your Wednesday afternoon!), and I came across this passage on the Postal Service: Because some experts, including OPM, have expressed concerns about the assumptions made in the Postal Service IG report, the Committee directs the Postal Service, in coordination with OPM and OMB, to develop a fiscally responsible legislative proposal to grant a limited measure of relief from the PAEA requirements to pre-fund retiree health benefits. If I’m reading this right, the Senate is not going to move…
Browsing: Congress
The Senate yesterday afternoon confirmed Robert Groves as the next director of the Census Bureau. The confirmation comes at a critical time for the Commerce Department bureau, which is about to undertake its once-a-decade tally of the U.S. population. Groves has the skills to tackle this challenge, top senators say. From 1990-1992, he was associate director for statistical design, standards and methodology at the Census Bureau. For the last eight years, he has directed the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. “Dr. Groves is a brilliant social scientist, he has impeccable credentials and the administration would have had a hard time…
The House passed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act in a 389-22 vote today. The House version of the bill would suspend the use of public-private competitions for federal jobs for three years, end the department’s pay-for-performance system and direct new contracting reforms.
The nation has its first chief performance officer. The Senate confirmed Jeffrey Zients’ nomination Friday. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag welcomed his new deputy for management with this blog post. Now we wait to see what changes Zients will bring to federal performance management. He’s had a successful track record imbuing positive performance into private sector companies through his work at the Corporate Executive Board Company and the Advisory Board Company.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve the nomination of Jeffrey Zients as the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget. If confirmed, Zients would also serve as the government’s first chief performance officer, tasked with improving agency operations and preparing the federal government for a wave of employees eligible for retirement in the coming years. Zients’ nomination now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The vote has not yet been scheduled.
The House Appropriations Committee approved the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch fiscal year 2010 appropriations draft bills at a markup Friday. The Homeland Security bill provides $42.63 billion for the agency, compared to President Barack Obama’s $42.83 billion request for fiscal year 2010. In 2009, the agency received $39.98 billion. The bill cuts $135 million requested for agency operations due to “staffing vacancies, redundant policy initiatives and poorly justified request to consolidate DHS headquarters for those agencies not moving to St. Elizabeths,” according to a committee news release. The bill includes: $10 billion for Customs and Border Protection, $82 million…
House and Senate conferees reached an agreement late Thursday on the $105.9 billion war supplemental bill, which includes $7.7 billion to respond to pandemic flu. The Centers for Disease Control and the Health and Human Services Department will receive $1.5 billion in additional fiscal year 2009 appropriations, as well as $5.8 billion for a contingency fund for expanding detection efforts, increasing federal drug stockpiles and developing and administering vaccines. President Barack Obama had requested $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2009 funds and $2 billion in contingency funds. In addition, the supplemental provides $350 million to help state and local governments…
The House adopted an amendment to the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act to allow TSA employees to voluntarily wear protective equipment during a public health emergency. The House passed the amendment by voice vote Thursday during floor debate on the bill, HR 2200. The House later passed the bill 397-25. The amendment, offered by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., would allow workers to wear surgical and N95 masks and gloves and use hand sanitizer during an emergency. The amendment was spurred by departmental reactions to the recent H1N1 flu outbreak. Unions pushed the Homeland Security Department to allow TSA and Customs…
In April, several senate Democrats, led by Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski, introduced a bill to convert some contracted work to federal performance and otherwise prevent the government from competing federal jobs with the private sector. Mikulski’s “CLEAN UP Act” – short for “Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements Act” – drew applause from unions and criticism from industry groups. But now Senate Republicans are getting in on the act with their own bill designed to do the opposite. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced the “Freedom From Government Competition Act” yesterday. The bill mandates federal agencies rely on the private sector for…
More than 100,000 Social Security numbers as well as Secret Service and White House operating procedures are on a hard drive missing from the National Archives and Records Administration. NARA’s inspector general briefed members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday about the national security information breach at the administration’s College Park, Md., facility. The drive contains one terabyte of data from Clinton administration records, according to a news release from the committee’s Republican staff, including: 100,000 Social Security numbers, including one of then-Vice President Al Gore’s daughters, Contact information, including addresses, for Clinton administration officials, Secret Service…