Federal employees have submitted more than 10,000 money-saving tips to the Office of Management and Budget’s SAVE Award contest in the last week, OMB director Peter Orszag announced today. OMB launched the SAVE Award contest on Sept. 23 to gather cost-cutting and performance-improving ideas from the people who know government best: the employees. So far, you have responded with 10,266 entries. And that number is growing as we speak. If you haven’t submitted an idea yet, don’t delay. The contest ends on Oct. 14. You can enter at www.SaveAward.gov. Once submissions close, an OMB panel will review the ideas and…
Browsing: White House
For 40 years Sesame Street has been teaching children their letters and numbers, but this year the residents of the famed street are teaching kids a new lesson: how to prevent the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, better known as swine flu. The White House, the Homeland Security Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the Education Department have teamed with the makers of Sesame Street to produce four public service announcements to teach children and families healthy habits that will prevent the spread of the potentially deadly virus. The PSAs can be viewed at www.flu.gov. The 20-second…
Have you ever wondered how your salary stacks up to the folks with the high-powered White House jobs? Well, wonder no more. Just click here. The White House posted a searchable form of its annual salary report to Congress yesterday. Predictably, the big-name power players like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Senior Adviser David Axelrod, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and speechwriter Jonathan Favreau all make six figures:Â $172,200 to be precise, or last year’s maximum salary for senior executives. The 2009 maximum for senior executives is $177,000.
To follow up on Gregg’s earlier post… The White House is also hosting an online discussion about how it should revise the policy governing classified national security information. Until Wednesday, the Public Interest Declassification Board will host a “Declassification Policy Forum” through the White House Open Government Blog to take comments on President Barack Obama’s May 27 memo ordering a review of the executive order outlining classification policy. Through the discussion, the White House hopes to answer the following: “Are you satisfied with the current executive order? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? What should a new executive order include…
The White House is extending the deadline to submit draft proposals of open government recommendations. The recommendations came in last month, during an online dialogue hosted by the White House and NAPA; now the administration is asking citizens to turn the recommendations into full-fledged proposals. The new deadline is July 6 (Monday).
The Recovery Act has been in place for 100 days today. To celebrate, the White House published this report today highlighting the effects of 100 projects funded through the act. Already $112 billion in funds have been spent and over 150,000 jobs created, according to the White House. The White House is currently working on a roadmap for the next 100 days and in October plans to post detailed spending information on Recovery.gov, according to the White House blog.
Following on the earlier theme of open government and sharing ideas, FedLine brings you more ways you can contribute to President Obama’s national discussion on improving government. Today the White House, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Academy of Public Administration launched a site to gather input on how information technology can bring greater transparency to recovery spending. The week long “National Dialogue” is soliciting ideas from the public on what Recovery.gov should do and how it should do it. Topics include data collection, data storage, data analysis, data presentation, Web site design, and waste, fraud and abuse…
Not having a secretary of Health and Human Services isn’t hurting the federal response to the swine flu outbreak, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Monday. “Our response is in no way hindered or hampered by not having a permanent secretary at HHS right now,” Gibbs said after a reporter asked how the agency is faring. Gibbs said he hopes the Senate will act quickly to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nominee for HHS secretary. The Senate has scheduled debate on her nomination for Tuesday with a vote possibly later in the day. Gibbs said interagency coordination for…
The Air Force likely will have some explaining to do following this particularly poorly thought-out photo op, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Seems the Air Force thought it was a good idea to have a Boeing 747 fly very low around Manhattan while being escorted by an F-16. Apparently, the FAA and the New York City Police Department were told of the stunt, but no one warned the public. Understandably, more than a few New Yorkers made for the exits, as reported by WSJ: The low-flying 747 sent workers worried about a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001,…
Many newspaper editorial pages were skeptical about the president’s call for $100 million in spending cuts at federal agencies. Maybe they had good reason: The Homeland Security Department is dropping some newspaper and magazine subscriptions to save money. The agency has told its employees to cancel subscriptions to general interest newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and to magazines such as Newsweek and Time by April 27.