The new WhiteHouse.gov is up and running. Its inaugural blog post promises timely communications with the public, transparency and public participation. But the most exciting part of the site for this FedLine reporter is the fun facts page. Because we all know I have no interest in fun facts of any sort, right? 😉
In remarks prepared for delivery, Barack Obama had this to say about federal government: The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light…
President Barack Obama’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, after the jump.
.tweetacc { margin-bottom: 0.25em; } .tweets { margin: 0 0 0.5em 0; padding: 0; font-size: 1.0em; } .tweets li { padding: 0.5em; list-style: none; } .flwtime { color: #666666; margin-left: 1em; } At noon today, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the nation’s 44th president. We’ll be providing live updates via Twitter from our three reporters at the inauguration. Rebecca is in the official press section; Steve has tickets to the swearing-in ceremony; Gregg is roaming around on the National Mall. (The last 5 updates from each reporter will display here.) Stephen Losey I’m signing off now–getting anywhere the…
The hour of the inauguration is getting closer and we’re sure to hear a lot about the nation’s financial crisis in soon-to-be President Barack Obama’s speech today. In yesterday’s edition of Federal Times I wrote about the stimulus plan. The story discussed how many of the programs Obama and congressional Democrats want to set up will require more procurement staff than are on hand. I thought it would be worth pointing out that Obama has yet to name leaders to key procurement slots. Obama’s choices for the chief of the General Services Administration and the administrator of Federal Procurement Policy…
President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in at noon today and President Bush will bow out to Texas. To honor the peaceful transition between the 43rd and 44th presidents we give you a special edition of fun facts for the inauguration. 1.5 million to 3 million people are expected to attend today’s festivities. If those numbers are reached it will set a new inaugural record. The record is held by Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 inaugural, which was attended by 1.2 million people. The population of Washington is just 600,000 people. 58 agencies, including the Secret Service, will have a role in the event.…
In his last full day in office, President Bush has commuted the sentences of two Border Patrol agents jailed for the 2005 shooting of an admitted drug smuggler and illegal alien who was fleeing back to Mexico. Prosecutors said Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean did not report the shooting and removed evidence from the scene when they picked up their shell casings. But their prosecution angered many supporters of tough immigration policies, such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who turned their case into a cause celebre and said their sentences were excessive. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in jail, and…
Change.gov will become WhiteHouse.gov just after noon tomorrow, according to Agence France-Presse. Many believe Change.gov to be emblematic of how President-elect Barack Obama will use the Web to advance his priorities of a more participatory and transparent democracy. Over the next few days other federal Web sites will also start to look a bit different as dozens of familiar names, like Michael Chertoff and Condoleezza Rice, are erased from government Web sites and replaced with the new administration officials, like Janet Napolitano or Hillary Clinton. The process is likely to be quick, said Casey Coleman, chief information officer for the…
On this Inauguration Eve, President-elect Barack Obama has filled in a few more blanks at the Office of Management and Budget. Jeffrey Liebman, a Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor, was named executive associate director for OMB. Steve Kosiak, vice president for budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, was named associate director for Defense and International Affairs. Robert Gordon, a senior education policy fellow at American Progress, was named associate director for Education, Income Maintenance and Labor. Xavier de Souza Briggs, an associate professor of sociology and urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was…
There are 8,600 facilities with at least one set of the official portraits of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and at noon eastern tomorrow the portraits will have to be “removed and respectfully disposed†of, according to a GSA spokeswoman. The spokeswoman didn’t expand on what “respectfully dispose†means, so your guess is as good as ours. The portraits will be replaced by the official photos of President Obama and Vice President Biden as soon as prints become available, which probably means most offices won’t see these smiling faces until March, according to GSA.