The Office of Personnel Management just posted this memo online that says agencies are free to let their employees go home early tomorrow. OPM Director John Berry said it’s up to each agency to decide whether to grant employees a short day: During the Thanksgiving holiday, I ask all Federal employees to reflect on the President’s message and renew their commitment to serving their communities. As a mark of gratitude for the service provided by Federal employees, executive branch department and agency heads can use their existing authority to provide an early dismissal (excused absence, with out charge to leave or…
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The White House this evening released the expected executive order on tracking and combating improper payments on government programs. And it does pretty much what we reported Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said it would, namely it orders agencies to: Report to a governmentwide Web site established to disclose and track a program’s total improper payments. The Web site will include error rates by agency and program, and an e-mail address the public can use to report suspected waste, fraud and abuse. Report on errors more frequently. For example, rather than annual reporting of how many improper…
Despite the experience of a certain Cincinnati radio station (see below), it turns out that turkeys can fly…just as long as they’re on an airplane. That’s the word from TSA, which has posted a list of holiday travel tips on its blog. Turkeys are permitted carry on items. As are pies (mmm…pie). The complete list of food related dos and don’ts is as follows: Foods: Pies are permitted, but they are subject to additional screening if our officers see any anomalies. (Additional screening of pies does not include our officers tasting the pie, no matter what they tell you…) Cakes,…
News reports are coming in from all over that an FAA computer glitch is snarling airports across the country. This from USA Today’s travel blogger Ben Mutzabaugh: Some of the first reports of cancellations are coming in now, the results of an FAA computer glitch that is affecting flights this morning. The Associated Press reports “AirTran has canceled 22 flights and dozens more flights have been delayed as of 8 a.m. EST. Delta Air Lines also has suffered.” AP adds “Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest airport, has been particularly affected” by the issue. CNN reports the FAA computer…
It seems like everybody’s got a new idea for attracting new talent to the federal government these days. But Jim McDermott, chief human capital officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thinks he’s found a foolproof way to convince young engineers to come to his agency: Find them dates. “There are incentives, and then there are incentives,” McDermott told a crowd of human resources officials at the HCMF Conference in Arlington, Va., earlier today. “When we’re hiring, we say, ‘Is there a significant other in the picture?’ If there’s no significant other, I tell them, ‘We can help.’ ” McDermott said his…
Happy Friday! As we all ready for the weekend, here are a few offbeat stories with a federal angle to brighten your day: Angry residents of Lantana, Fla. sent a not so subtle message to Post Master General John Potter about his plans to close their local post office: 1,000 coconuts. Potter, in turn, donated the produce to the D.C. food bank Bread for the City. [h/t: DCist] The Smithsonian uses the photo sharing Web site Flickr to remind us of an era in photography where you couldn’t instantly share an image with thousands of your closest friends around the…
Agency use of risky cost-based contracts has dropped over the last six-years, but the number of contracts coded as “combination contracts” is on the rise, the Government Accountability Office found in a report released today. Between 2003 and 2008, the value of cost-reimbursement contracts, which pay vendors for their actual costs to perform the work, grew from $120 billion to $136 billion. But as a percentage of overall dollars spent through the procurement process, use declined. In 2003, the $120 billion represented 34 percent of the $298 billion spent. In 2008, the $136 billion was just 26 percent of the…
Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., rose to speak on the Senate floor yesterday to inform everyone he’s not lifting the hold on Martha Johnson’s nomination to lead the General Services Administration until the GSA explains…again…why it decided to build a federally owned building to house 1,200 feds in downtown Kansas City, rather than taking the more costly lease-construction route. (A lease-construction project is when a contractor builds a space to government specs then leases it to the government.) In the Oct. 29 floor statement, Bond expressed frustration that GSA decided to “pull the plug” on the lease-construction project that he…
UPDATE: OMB says the definition of inherently governmental functions is still being worked on. Expect to hear something by the end of the year. The Office of Management and Budget just released two long-awaited procurement reform memos. The first is about increasing competition while reducing risk in contracting. The second is about strategic planning for the civilian agency acquisition workforce. So far no word on a A third piece of expected guidance meant to clarify the definition of inherently governmental functions was not released today as expected [see update above]. That memo will help agencies carry out earlier guidance to…
The Office of Management and Budget received nearly 40,000 ideas from federal employees recommending ways the government can save money in fiscal 2011. When OMB’s SAVE Award contest closed on Oct. 14, federal employees had submitted 38, 484 ideas. An OMB panel will now review the submissions and send a handful of finalists to President Barack Obama to choose from. The winning entry will be announced next month. The winner gets to meet Obama and the idea will be included in the 2011 budget. Now that nominations are closed, FedLine wants to know: Did you submit an idea? If so,…