The House of Representatives is planning to vote on a resolution calling the shooting a “horrific attack” and “tragic” and detailing each of the victims. The Tucson shooting resolution (posted on Politico as a PDF) lists who was attacked, applauds the citizens who took action to stop the shooter and wishes for the quick recovery of all the wounded. Whereas Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old daughter of John and Roxanna Green, was born on September 11, 2001, and was a third grader with an avid interest in government who was recently elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary…
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President Obama has settled on policy veteran Heather Higginbottom as the new deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Higginbottom, a former aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who also was policy director for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, currently serves as deputy director at the White House Domestic Policy Council. “She understands the relationship between numbers on a ledger and the lives of real people,” Obama said when announcing her nomination for the OMB slot Friday, along with several other appointments. “As we make cuts that are necessary to rein in the deficit, I want to make sure I’ve got Heather…
Last year’s Service to America Medals recipients united Haitian orphans with their adoptive families, worked to convict more than 600 sexual predators and developed equipment to boost survival rates among wounded soldiers. Starting today, the Partnership for Public Service is accepting nominations through Jan. 31 for the annual public service awards, known as the Sammies. The awards recognize civilian federal employees who have shown commitment to service and have made significant contributions in their fields. There are eight medal categories, including federal employee of the year, citizen services and management excellence. Winners are selected based on “impact of their work…
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, is leaving to become the top public health official for the State of Maryland. As the Journal notes, Sharfstein’s departure has possible ramifications for the FDA’s oversight of drugs and medical devices. But there’s also a connection to the Obama administration’s performance management agenda. As Federal Times wrote back in September, Sharfstein has been the driving force behind creation of FDA-TRACK, a web site that monitors the agency’s performance in dozens of areas and was cited as a model for other…
Most federal executives exceed agency security requirements when using laptops and other devices inside the office but are less likely to do so while teleworking, according to a study released Tuesday by the Government Business Council. The survey of 232 executives, mostly in operations, found that 88 percent lock their computer screens when they’re away, and 77 percent only use secure network connections when at work. Outside the office, only 52 percent said they used these security measures. Overall, 97 percent said their agencies require at least a password or some form of authentication when accessing work on an agency-issued…
Policy wonks, rejoice: The recently reborn Administrative Conference of the United States, or ACUS, is officially out with its first recommendation. The non-binding proposal, published in today’s Federal Register, was adopted by the conference in a plenary session last month and is aimed at improving agencies’ handling of rulemakings that could preempt state laws. It was the only recommendation approved during the two-day session, an ACUS spokeswoman said. First authorized in 1964, ACUS is an independent agency charged with promoting improvements in the efficiency, adequate and fairness of federal regulatory and grant programs, according to its founding statute, and compiled…
A quirk in the 2010 budget and the continuing resolution have forced NASA to continue funding already-canceled Ares V rocket program to the tune of $465 million through March 4. The Orlando Sentinel caught this one: At the root of the problem is a 70-word sentence inserted into the 2010 budget — by lawmakers seeking to protect Ares I jobs in their home states — that bars NASA from shutting down the program until Congress passed a new budget a year later. That should have happened before the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year. But Congress never passed…
The continuing spending resolutions continue . . . To give itself a little breathing room, Congress has approved a three-day extension of the continuing resolution, or CR, that would have expired at midnight tonight. The extension, approved Friday, pushed the deadline back to Tuesday. Before that point, lawmakers are expected to pass one more CR that would run into early next year. The resolutions generally leave agency spending frozen at fiscal 2010 levels; the latest round comes after Senate Democrats could not round up the votes to break a likely Republican filibuster of a catch-all appropriations bill for fiscal 2011. …
A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier definitely took customer service to an inappropriate and illegal level when he decided to cheer up a woman on his route by delivering her mail while naked. Let’s just say it didn’t go over well. According to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “A male postal worker was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior after walking naked into an office to deliver mail in the 300 block of West Silver Spring Drive, at 1:10 p.m. Dec. 4.” The man said he told a 21-year-old female employee in that office that he would retrieve…
Two-dozen past and present Securities and Exchange Commission employees are probably breathing easier. The reason? A federal judge ruled against making their names public after they got caught watching pornography and other sexual images on the job. In a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed this May, Denver attorney Kevin Evans had argued that government workers who “knowingly and intentionally” used taxpayer-financed property to engage in misconduct had no right to privacy. In a ruling last week, U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello disagreed. Not only were their privacy rights intact, Arguello wrote in an interesting line of judicial reasoning, but…