So some of you readers might have seen a WUSA report in the D.C. area that took aim at federal workers leaving the lights on. Well, Andrea McCarren had noted that in many federal office buildings, the lights were being left on at night, which costs taxpayer dollars. So she filed a report on how much each agency pays in energy costs for each month and came away with some striking figures. The video package seems to have everything: Taxpayer dollars being wasted, federal employees behaving badly and federal agencies paying through the nose for electricity because they leave their…
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WUSA in Washington, D.C. has put together a report that criticizes various federal agency headquarters for failing to turn off their lights after working hours. To put an even greater emphasis on it, they show utility costs that range all the way up to more than $1 million dollars for the Labor Department. [HTML1] WUSA does not put the full documents online, but I am looking into the numbers a bit deeper to see if there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Now here’s something you don’t hear every day from a leading organized labor figure: “We must shift the focus of the union away from acting as a grievance machine,” American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey says today in a release on the organization’s web site. “Leaders at all levels of the organization must get more involved in legislative activities and other union efforts.” If labor-management relations at the U.S. Postal Service will likely never resemble a group hug, there’s an obvious reason for the APWU to re-prioritize: The world’s leading mail carrier is at risk of going broke and…
In case you missed it, the General Services Administration launched a new website for feds to share ideas, challenges and best practices. The ultimate goal of HowTo.gov is to provide resources that will improve customer service across the federal government. The site replaced Webcontent.gov as the online hub for information about technology solutions, social media and web content. There is also a page devoted to cloud computing.
Although the Obama administration wants more scrutiny of program performance, some agencies need help just getting started. That, anyway, seems to be the between-the-lines message of a new Government Accountability Office report. It looks at how a handful of agencies decide which programs to evaluate, with the inference that they could serve as a model for others that aren’t sure how to begin. Most use performance measures to track progress toward goals, but few appear to conduct in-depth evaluations to see how programs are actually working, the GAO told Sen. Daniel Akaka, the Hawaii Democrat who requested the review. The…
Back in July, the Office of Management and Budget announced that roughly $100 million had been allocated to 35 program evaluations and “evaluation capacity-building proposals” across the government. But allocated isn’t the same thing as appropriated. It turns out that agencies have yet to see a dime because Congress has yet to pass a fiscal 2011 budget. Instead, agencies are operating off a continuing resolution out that generally keeps spending frozen at 2010 levels. “We are very committed to evaluating what works and what doesn’t to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent effectively, but these evaluations have not been funded yet…
[HTML1] The 176-acre west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington is an unlikely place for the Department of Homeland Security to call home — as it will by 2016. Established by Congress in 1855 as a home for the mentally ill, St. Elizabeths is still in operation on its east campus. But the expansive campus on the west is a national historic landmark populated by late 19th century and early 20th century red brick buildings. The main administrative building, which DHS will renovate for its own use, was designed in part by Thomas Walter, who designed the Capitol…
“Since OPM refuses to exercise this authority, we urge you to use your authority as President to do so,” postal labor and management groups said in a letter to President Obama.
The cost of mailing packages, postcards and other items will rise this April, the U.S. Postal Service announced today. The price of a postcard stamp, for example, will rise by a penny to 29 cents. Although the base price for sending a first-class letter will remain at 44 cents, the charge for additional ounces will increase from 17 to 20 cents, USPS spokesman Greg Frey said. The rate hikes would be the first of any kind since May 2009, Frey said, and are set to take effect April 17. Other products and services affected by the planned increase include parcels,…
As a bit of an addendum to the earlier story “Congress, agencies focus on security in wake of Arizona shootings” I wanted to add the words of Margaret Moore, the president of the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation and a former officer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and firearms. She said that while many law enforcement agencies are focused on responding to an incident, there is a growing emphasis on prevention. She pointed to the Transportation Security Administration as one organization that is attempting to recognize behavioral patterns and stop crimes before they happen. Moore said that law…