Sure, we’ve been reporting for some time on the government’s requirement to purchase products made from agricultural or biological materials (see here, here and here). But Sen. Tom Harkin thinks it’s time for an update. During today’s confirmation hearing for former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to head the Agriculture Department, the Iowa Democrat said he will use his position as chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to address the biobased procurement requirement, which Harkin inserted into the 2002 Farm Bill. Specifically, Harkin said he would call every Cabinet secretary before the committee to ask…
The speculation that President-elect Barack Obama has all but named National Zoo Director John Berry to be the next Office of Personnel Management director may be a little premature. Federal Times has just learned that Berry told a Senate staffer yesterday that Obama has not offered him the job yet, though he has been engaged in preliminary discussions with the transition team. So while it looks like Berry is indeed in the running, OPM is not as close to having a new boss as we thought yesterday.
We’ve been wondering why the Senate Finance committee took so long to schedule a confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner. It may have to do with a tax problem: Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early this decade, and also faces questions about the employment papers of a former household employee, suddenly complicating what had seemed to be an easy confirmation process in the Senate. Hard to know what to make of this. Geithner repaid the back taxes, with interest, after the Obama…
President-elect Barack Obama today named William Corr as the nominee for deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr, currently the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, served as chief of staff to former Secretary Donna Shalala during her tenure at HHS. He also served as the deputy assistant secretary for health and counselor to the secretary. He also has a solid working relationship with HHS Secretary-designate Tom Daschle, having served as chief counsel and policy director for former Senate Minority Leader Daschle for two years. In a statement, Obama praised Corr’s experience and said…
The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports this morning that John Berry, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, has accepted an offer by President-elect Barack Obama to become director of the Office of Personnel Management. Berry previously served as executive director of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the nation’s wildlife, and before that, as assistant secretary of the Interior Department for management. In the mid-1990s he directed government relations for the Smithsonian and, between 1985 and 1994, served as legislative director for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Among the…
Politicians can’t get enough of squawking about the debacle that is the Bowl Championship Series. First President-elect Barack Obama bemoaned the system of selecting a national “champion” for college football. (Unsure how the BCS works? Click here.) Now Congress is looking to get in on the action (because, you know, there’s not much else going on right now). Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, may have some bitter feelings about Texas being shut out of the BCS title game, because he introduced HR 390 in the House last week. Let’s read the bill’s description: “A bill to prohibit, as an unfair and…
Last week, I wrote about a nonprofit group’s recommendations for a successful electronic government. This week, the Chief Information Officers Council is weighing it with its recommendations in a newly released report the council has shared with the Obama transition team. Here are the some of the key recommendations from the CIO Council on how to make e-government successful: Government must tap the power of collaboration both within its own ranks and with citizens. By letting citizens and employees “take what they need†and “share what they know†government can improve effectiveness and efficiency by creating an environment where the most up-to-date…
Feds scheduled to work in the Washington area next week could get a four-day weekend, thanks to the inauguration. Monday, Jan. 19 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, for which all federal employees receive a day off. And the following day is Inauguration Day, which is expected to nearly paralyze the nation’s capital. Federal employees who usually work in Washington, Fairfax Co., Va., Arlington Co., Va., Alexandria, Va., Falls Church, Va., Montgomery Co., Md., and Prince George’s Co., Md. will get Jan. 20 off, unless they were scheduled to be on official travel or telework in another location that day.…
Baseball may be the national pastime, but this seems a little extreme. A new report (pdf) from the Justice Department’s inspector general found that a U.S. Marshals lawyer, Joseph Band — who was moonlighting as a statistician for FOX Sports — arranged for the Marshals to escort the limousines of FOX’s baseball announcers (Joe Buck and Tim McCarver) after two 2007 World Series games. They then led McCarver’s limousine out of the Fenway Park area in a two-car motorcade… they had their emergency lights on as they were attempting to work their way out of the immediate area of Fenway…
It’s happened at countless workplaces across the country. Someone, on purpose or by accident, sends an email to the entire office and people start replying…to every person on the list. Inevitably, angry co-workers also start replying to everyone, chiding those who hit “reply-all.†Inboxes overflow with message after message. Annoying yes, but cause for disciplinary action? It could be if you work at the State Department, which was recently hit by a similar scenario that got so bad it nearly crippled the department’s unclassified email system. Now, according to a cable obtained by the Associated Press, senior department officials are…