Peter Orszag appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee for a hearing on his nomination as OMB director. It was almost as painless as yesterday’s hearing before the Senate Budget committee. Senators focused mostly on government management issues, and Orszag made a few notable statements. First, though, a word about the budget. Orszag reiterated, once again, that the Obama administration will release a 2010 budget in “mid-to-late February.” One new detail: He said the budget will include “some program eliminations.” No word on which programs, though.
Browsing: Transition
We’ve been wondering why the Senate Finance committee took so long to schedule a confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner. It may have to do with a tax problem: Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early this decade, and also faces questions about the employment papers of a former household employee, suddenly complicating what had seemed to be an easy confirmation process in the Senate. Hard to know what to make of this. Geithner repaid the back taxes, with interest, after the Obama…
President-elect Barack Obama today named William Corr as the nominee for deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr, currently the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, served as chief of staff to former Secretary Donna Shalala during her tenure at HHS. He also served as the deputy assistant secretary for health and counselor to the secretary. He also has a solid working relationship with HHS Secretary-designate Tom Daschle, having served as chief counsel and policy director for former Senate Minority Leader Daschle for two years. In a statement, Obama praised Corr’s experience and said…
Last week, I wrote about a nonprofit group’s recommendations for a successful electronic government. This week, the Chief Information Officers Council is weighing it with its recommendations in a newly released report the council has shared with the Obama transition team. Here are the some of the key recommendations from the CIO Council on how to make e-government successful: Government must tap the power of collaboration both within its own ranks and with citizens. By letting citizens and employees “take what they need†and “share what they know†government can improve effectiveness and efficiency by creating an environment where the most up-to-date…
Feds scheduled to work in the Washington area next week could get a four-day weekend, thanks to the inauguration. Monday, Jan. 19 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, for which all federal employees receive a day off. And the following day is Inauguration Day, which is expected to nearly paralyze the nation’s capital. Federal employees who usually work in Washington, Fairfax Co., Va., Arlington Co., Va., Alexandria, Va., Falls Church, Va., Montgomery Co., Md., and Prince George’s Co., Md. will get Jan. 20 off, unless they were scheduled to be on official travel or telework in another location that day.…
One of President-elect Barack Obama’s most interesting nominations is Cass Sunstein, his pick to head OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Cass Sunstein, a Harvard University law professor and Barack Obama’s pick to head OIRA. We’ll profile him in next Monday’s Federal Times — like I did this week with Nancy Killefer, Obama’s new chief performance officer — but a few early thoughts: Sunstein is a law professor at Harvard University; before that, he taught at the University of Chicago. He’s an old friend of the president-elect from his UChicago teaching days. And he’s written extensively on government regulation,…
Thought the presidential race was over? Not quite. The House and Senate met today in a joint session to count and certify the Electoral College votes, formally declaring Barack Obama the 44th president. With Vice President Dick Cheney presiding in one of his last official duties, four pages carried in the two gleaming wooden boxes containing the certificates from each state plus the District of Columbia. California was the first state read in alphabetical order to give votes to Obama, leading to a roar of applause in the House Chamber. When Obama was announced as the winner, the entire Congress…
Former Sen. Tom Daschle’s appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today marked the first confirmation hearing for the slate of Senate confirmable nominees named by President-elect Barack Obama over the past two months. During the hearing, which marked Chairman Edward Kennedy’s return to Capitol Hill after treatment for a brain tumor, Daschle repeatedly emphasized his commitment to improving efficiency and innovating America’s health care system. Senators also challenged him to improve civil servants’ morale within HHS and to make the department more effective and accountable. Daschle spoke of the health crisis facing Native Americans, citing that…
Barack Obama is expected to name the person he wants as his chief technology officer pretty soon. Obama has said the CTO is supposed to ensure agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. Coincidentally, mySociety, a British non-profit group that advocates for and facilitates open, electronic government, has posted a blog this week about how the government of “any reasonably developed country†should use the Internet. Here is what mySociety has to say: The most scary thing about the Internet for your government is not pedophiles, terrorists or viruses, whatever you may have read in…
10:50 a.m. EST: Killefer just gave a short statement, talking about the need to work across agency boundaries to improve services. She also said a few words about federal employees: Government employees themselves will be central to this effort. I am convinced that the success of every policy of this administration will be influenced by the people engaged in it. 10:43 a.m. EST: Obama on that rapidly-growing budget deficit: My own economic and budget team projects that unless we take decisive action, even after our economy pulls out of its slide, trillion-dollar deficits will be a reality for years to…