OMB, CBO, GAO Policy Statements

[admin]

An OMB/DHS joint task force has produced a business case calling for the consolidation of four sectors of information technology security across all branches of government.

The draft proposes consolidating security training, Federal Information Security Management Act reporting, situational awareness and incident response, and selection of security products and life-cycle maintenance.

The plan intends to eliminate costly overlaps while streamlining security assessment processes.

For more information, see:
http://www.fcw.com/article89818-08-08-05-Print

[admin]

The highway bill signed yesterday by President Bush failed to address Hours of Service regulations for truck drivers, thus requiring new ones to be drafted.

A Federal Appeals Court threw out new regulations last year. OMB and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are required to publish the new regulations in the Federal Register by 9/30.

For more information, see:
http://www.thetrucker.com/showstory.aspx?id=10002

[admin]

A US District Court judge ruled against an OMB personnel reform program. "The push for governmentwide personnel reform will not be affected by last weekend's court ruling that parts of the Homeland Security Department's similar plan are illegal, according to Office of Management and Budget officials."

Read article http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32013&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

Because a shared services environment embraces a different mindset, especially for the federal government, establishing structure to manage the change has proved critical. "One lesson learned from Quicksilver and elsewhere is that one of the hardest things to do is establish the governance structure to facilitate and make these shared service environments effective," said Sindelar.

For each initiative, the OMB's portfolio managers help oversee implementation strategy. But primarily interagency task forces have effectively laid the groundwork and formulated the business case -- whether to proceed, costs and benefits, alternatives, and its relation to the federal enterprise architecture, which is an overriding requirement. Private-sector partners are also queried for ideas and best practices.

Read more http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/96403

[admin]

" Forecasts by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are putting unemployment at 400,000 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina." (AccountingWEB.com - September 12, 2005)

Click here

http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=101285&d=815&h=817&f=816&dateformat=%25B%20%25e,%20%25Y

[admin]

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page A29

The Bush administration's top number crunchers have a new piece of data to ponder: The Office of Management and Budget has finished No. 1 in a nonprofit group's just-released survey of "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government."

The OMB, a politically powerful agency that develops the president's annual budget and helps manage federal agencies, climbed two places in the 2005 rankings by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization that wants to entice more talented people to work for Uncle Sam.

Clay Johnson III, a deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, attributes his agency's No. 1 ranking to its culture of engaging employees.

The agency, run by a full-time staff of fewer than 500, most of them in professional positions, "encourages a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines and intensive collaboration with high-level agency officials to make the most of its employees' talents," according to the group's report.

The OMB has a big impact on national policy and gives younger workers critical responsibilities in an atmosphere that emphasizes teamwork and matches employees' skills to their missions, the report said.

Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management at the OMB, said that the agency's No. 1 ranking reflects its culture of "engaging employees and holding managers accountable for results" -- a culture that he hopes to bring to more federal agencies.

The rankings -- which first appeared in 2003 and are compiled every other year -- are sure to generate discussion and disagreement among agencies. The National Science Foundation finished second in this year's list and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission third, with the Government Accountability Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission rounding out the top
five.

The top-ranked agencies tended to be smaller, with a mostly professional staff working on a relatively focused mission. Larger departments with varied staffs and missions -- such as Agriculture, Defense, Labor and the Interior -- tended to be in the middle of the list.

The partnership put together the list with the help of American
University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation and Sirota Survey Intelligence.

To compile the rankings, the partnership analyzed the responses of nearly 150,000 federal employees to questions about their overall job satisfaction. Respondents were asked whether they agreed with statements such as "My job makes good use of my skills and abilities" and "I hold my organization's
leaders in high regard."

The information was drawn from the Office of Personnel Management's 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, a scientific study of federal employees conducted last year. The 2003 rankings were based on responses to an earlier
OPM survey.

Because the rankings are driven wholly by internal perceptions of the workplace, they reflect how happy federal employees are in their agencies, not which agencies are the best-performing.

"It's an important distinction," said Max Stier, the partnership's
president. "But there's a lot of research that how the employees feel is incredibly important to the bottom line. When your employees are engaged , they produce more, they do better. . . .

People that are engaged are going to do better work."

The 2003 rankings generated some controversy because the top-rated agency was NASA, which was still reeling from the fatal crash of the space shuttle Columbia that year and was facing criticism for a management culture that did not place enough emphasis on safety. NASA dropped to No. 6 this year, mainly because four of the five agencies that finished ahead of it were
included in the rankings for the first time.

"Other agencies overtook them, rather than NASA doing worse," Stier said."They saw a small incremental drop."

The Department of Homeland Security, which was too new to be included in the 2003 rankings, finished second-to-last among 30 large agencies this year. Since its creation in 2003, the department has been plagued by poor morale and organizational discord as the administration tries to stitch 22 different agencies into a coherent, functional bureaucracy. The Small Business Administration, which ranked 24th in 2003, came in last.

In rankings that depend on the feel-good factor, the partnership's listing of smaller agencies, appropriately enough, placed the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services in the No. 1 slot.

[admin]

"There's no doubt, no question, there's going to be fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement -- there already has been," Comptroller General David M. Walker told Knight Ridder. "

"At the Office of Management and Budget, where procurement policy is set, spokesman Alex Conant said, "We feel that we have the controls in place to prevent abuse and fraud."

But that's not what more than a dozen experts -- current and former contracting officers, auditors, contract law professors, whistle-blowers and members of Congress -- say."



http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050925/NEWS/509250307

[admin]

"That chamber's Finance Committee, voting along party lines, approved legislation that would trim overall spending on Medicare and Medicaid by about $10 billion over five years. The committee's 11 Republicans supported the legislation. The committee's nine Democrats opposed it."

"Even with those reductions, however, the Congressional Budget Office projects that financing of the two programs would grow substantially over the coming five years.

The CBO predicts Medicaid spending will increase from about $192 billion in 2006 to about $260 billion in 2010. Medicare spending will increase from about $385 billion in the coming year to about $525 billion in 2010. The increases reflect growing health care costs and a growing number of people becoming eligible for the programs."

Click Here to Read More:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/25/senate.cuts.ap/index.html

[admin]

"The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission should reevaluate its reorganization plans, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last week.

The EEOC is currently 'flattening its hierarchy' by adding new field offices in Mobile, Ala., and Las Vegas. The Commission is staffing these offices by moving a number of employees from management and supervisory positions to out in the field.

This restructuring has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget and the National Academy of Public Administration, but GAO does not think EEOC has not appropriately researched the reorganization."


Click Here to Read More:
http://www.fednews-online.com/view_publication.aspx?publicationId=8560

[admin]

"Called for in the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, it has been active since 1996. But reports from nonprofit and other organizations over the last decade said that agencies use GILS sparingly.

Now OMB is asking whether technology has surpassed GILS, which officials said relies on metadata tagging, and whether there is something that is less costly and more effective for searching the mounds of government data.

While OMB has yet to determine whether a request for proposals will come from this RFI, interest from the public and private sector in improving federal data is strong.

Kurt Sanford, president and chief executive officer for Lexis Nexis U.S. Corporate and Federal Markets, said the RFI [Request for Information] 'could quite possibly be the most important e-government initiative envisioned to date.'"


Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/24_32/news/37503-1.html

[admin]

"Any teen with a computer and an e-mail address can obtain anabolic steroids and distributors face little chance of being caught, congressional investigators said in a report issued Thursday.

The Government Accountability Office study found the Internet makes it easy for mainly overseas distributors to avoid detection. And for those who are caught, the penalties are much lighter than for many other illegal drugs."


Click Here to Read More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Congress_Steroids.html

[admin]

"Mining industry critics braced for a House vote on a budget bill that includes a provision that could allow the sales of millions of acres of public lands.

The provision would overturn a congressional ban on letting mineral companies and individuals buy public lands at cheap prices if they hold mineral deposits.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the changes in law could raise several hundred million dollars, including $100 million that could be spent over the next 10 years for mining cleanups and schools that offer training in petroleum, mining or mineral engineering.

A vote on the overall bill could come as early as Thursday."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-selling-mining-lands,0,1454918.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[admin]

"While the Internal Revenue Service has made 'great strides' in addressing financial management challenges and internal control deficiencies, a report from the Government Accountability Office stated that the service still faces substantial hurdles in that area.

Citing audits of the IRS's 2004 and 2005 financials, the GAO report said that the service had to rely heavily on 'resource-intensive compensating processes to prepare its financials,' as a result of its inability to maintain effective internal controls."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=16238

[admin]

"E-government took a hit in the latest report card on the President’s Management Agenda’s initiatives, as the current status rating dropped for six agencies.

In the Office of Management and Budget’s latest score card for the quarter ending Sept. 30, four agencies received green scores for their current state of e-government, compared with seven agencies after the previous quarter. Nine agencies scored red in e-government, compared with six failing grades last quarter. Last year at this time, eight agencies were seeing green and seven failed.

In the quarterly score card, OMB officials evaluate agency status and progress in five areas: workforce management, competitive sourcing, financial performance, e-government, and budget and performance integration.

Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management, attributed the downgrade to failure to complete several milestones in agencies’ e-government implementation plans."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.fcw.com/article91453-11-16-05-Web

[admin]

"The Government Accountability Office may finally have ended the two-year saga surrounding the refurbishing of the USAJobs.gov Web site.

Earlier this month, GAO rejected a second protest by Symplicity Corp. of Arlington, Va., of the Office of Personnel Management’s contract award to Monster Government Solutions of Maynard, Mass., to run the government’s online employment portal. "


Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/24_33/inbrief/37597-1.html

[admin]

"Interior secretary Gale Norton disagrees with her department’s inspector general that the department does not meet federal security requirements and has asked the Office of Management and Budget to clarify its interpretation of those requirements.

Interior certified and accredited more than 98 percent of its systems in fiscal 2005 to comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act. During the year, Interior also made progress in consolidating 13 networks into a single departmental enterprise services network, with strong network perimeter security controls. The three remaining bureau networks are undergoing consolidation now, she said in a letter to OMB director Joshua Bolten last month."


Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/37643-1.html

[admin]

"Deregulation of wholesale electricity markets in the U.S. has resulted in "periods of substantially higher prices in some areas of the country" and a patchwork of electricity markets, according to a congressional report released Wednesday.

Citing market manipulation in the West during 2000 and 2001 and rising power prices nationwide, the Government Accountability Office said in a report that the deregulation of power markets had been a negative experience for some people.

'As consumers in California and across other parts of the West will attest, there have been many negative effects' of deregulation, the report said. The accountability office is the investigative arm of Congress."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dereg1dec01,1,1861422.story?coll=la-headlines-business

[admin]

"The top budget scorekeeper for Congress said yesterday that there's no consensus on how to solve the government's long-term fiscal problems and voiced disappointment that lawmakers couldn't tackle at least Social Security this year.

'That's really disappointing to me because Social Security is the easy [program]' to reform, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, outgoing director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Medicare and Medicaid are 'much harder' to diagnose and reform because of their complexity and rapidly rising costs, he said.

Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the programs eventually will consume an untenable chunk of the federal deficit and must be changed soon. He also hinted that a "sensible" tax increase probably is needed as part of the solution, though he didn't provide much detail.

'There's no such thing as a free lunch,' Mr. Holtz-Eakin said. 'We're not going to grow our way out of our fiscal problems.'"

Click Here to Read More:
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20051201-103508-5499r.htm

[admin]

The Office of Management and Budget will furnish guidance by the end of this month or in early January 2006 to help agencies determine how they should select a federal provider of financial-management services, an Office of Management and Budget official said yesterday.

The guidance aims to encourage agencies to participate in the financial management Line of Business initiative. Under the Lines of Business Consolidation initiative, when agencies have to replace existing financial systems they would be required to consider federal and industry financial-management centers of excellence.

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/37719-1.html

[admin]

"About one in 20 domain names—some 2.3 million Web sites—have been registered with patently false data in required contact information fields, Congressional auditors reported Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office says those seeking to register the names of their Web sites may provide inaccurate contact information to registrars in order to hide their identities or to prevent members of the public from contacting them. Contact information is made publicly available on the Internet through a service known as Whois.

'Data accuracy in the Whois service can help law enforcement officials to investigate intellectual property misuse and online fraud, or identify the source of spam E-mail, and can help Internet operators to resolve technical network issues,' Linda Koontz, GAO director of information management issues, writes in the 51-page report sent to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174904958

[admin]

"The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that a wave of pandemic influenza could depress gross domestic product (GDP) by 5 percent at worst, and at its mildest, the flu would cause barely a ripple in the economy.

A research and analysis agency of the U.S. Congress, the CBO looked at severe episodes of pandemic influenza that have occurred in the past and calculated that 90 million people in the United States might be affected, resulting in 2 million deaths.

'These are huge numbers,' said Senator Bill Frist, the leader of the Senate’s Republican party, who asked the CBO to conduct the research. 'This scenario suggests that a severe influenza pandemic would have an impact on the U.S. economy that is slightly larger than the typical recession experienced since World War II. On average those recessions lowered real GDP 4.7 percent.'"

Click Here to Read More:
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=December&x=20051214165550cmretrop0.9767725&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

[admin]

"The Defense Department paid contractors $8 billion over five years in bonuses on weapons programs that were often dogged by severe cost overruns, performance problems and delays, the Government Accountability Office said.

The agency, an independent auditor for Congress, reviewed 93 of 597 military contracts in force between 1999 and 2004 that included the possibility of a bonus. Contractors on average were awarded about 90 percent of the bonus money available, the agency said in the draft of a report it sent to the Pentagon and plans to release next week."

Click Here to Read More:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002684598_gao15.html

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget has posted the second version of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model.

OMB intends for the DRM to be used by federal data and system architects to describe information in such a way that it can be easily located and used across multiple federal agencies. It provides the resources to standardize the description and context and means of sharing data."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/37824-1.html

[admin]

"The New Year brings a new pay system for employees at the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO, which has been a leader in federal personnel reform and holds an exemption from most civil service rules, is introducing market sensitivity to its pay scale. GAO hired the global consulting firm Watson Wyatt to conduct a study of compensation for analysts and is making several changes based on those findings.

This year, the GAO is guaranteeing that every employee with a 'meets expectation' or higher rating will receive at least a 2.6 percent salary adjustment. All pay hikes beyond that will be tied directly to performance ratings."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33075&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget is seeking public comment before updating a bulletin regarding the best ways to implement regulatory policies in every federal agency.

The OMB is seeking comments by Jan. 9, 2006, on ways to increase the quality and transparency of these policies. The documents, known as guidance documents, are prepared by an agency and describe an agency’s interpretation of a policy on a regulatory or technical issue. They are designed to inform the public and provide direction to agency staffs."

Click Here for More Information:
http://www.fcw.com/article91819-12-27-05-Web

[admin]

"Halfway through his four-year term as director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin stepped down from the position on Dec. 30 to take an economics position with the Council of Foreign Relations."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=18528

[admin]

"Due to sloppy record-keeping, the Army cannot confirm that $68 million worth of shipped parts and tools ever made it into the hands of repair contractors, congressional auditors say.

The Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, released a report Wednesday showing that the Army in 2004 failed to consistently record shipment receipts to such contractors. That is one of many issues, the GAO says, that leads to weak inventory oversight."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122900134.html

[admin]

"Has search technology ad-vanced far enough to overcome the compulsion to categorize and catalog each piece of data? The Office of Management and Budget thinks so—at least in most cases.

That’s why the administration’s new policy fulfilling Section 207 of the E-Government Act of 2002 is drawing the ire of some critics who say that, without sufficient cataloging or metadata tagging, information will be less accessible. The policy tells agencies to categorize information but, detractors say, doesn’t go into enough detail."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/25_01/news/37924-1.html

[admin]

"An October 21, 2005 DID article offered detailed coverage of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that looked at various military transport options, including DARPA's ultra-large WALRUS class airships.

The CBO also issued The Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans and Alternatives: Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2006 recently [2005/10/17 version, PDF format]. This report looks at the long term cost implications of the current US military budget, compares FY 2006 proposals in each major area with an 'evolutionary alternative' and a 'transformational alternative' force mix, then assesses long term costs and risks under each scenario.

That report has just been updated, and DID offers both a link to the revised report, and a few pointers re: some highlights worth a closer look."

To Read More Click Here:
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/01/cbo-report-on-americas-fy-2006-defense-plans-updated/index.php

[admin]

"A $500 million U.S. defense contract awarded to ITT Industries Inc. should be reconsidered because of the contractor's conflict of interest, the Government Accountability Office said.

As part of the 'spectrum management' contract, the White Plains, N.Y.-based company would evaluate electronics for the Defense Department to see if they interfere with one another through radio waves.

ITT would regularly be required to review its own products or those of its competitors under this contract, GAO said."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.forbes.com/business/healthcare/feeds/ap/2006/01/13/ap2449513.html

[admin]

"John Graham, head of the Office of Management and Budget's regulatory division, is making his last days memorable.

Graham, who leaves on March 1 to run the RAND Corp.'s graduate school in policy analysis, has issued a proposed risk assessment bulletin that would create new rules for regulators in the interest of promoting 'sound science.' An OMB spokesman said, 'The quality and transparency of risk assessments currently varies from agency to agency. This bulletin provides clear, minimum standards for agency risk assessments.'

The guidelines, which were published as a draft bulletin on Jan. 9, will be open to public comment through June 15 and have been forwarded to the National Academy of Sciences for review, according to an OMB statement. These inputs, as well as comments from federal agencies, will be used to issue final guidelines late this year."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0106/011706m1.htm

[admin]

"The 'open' sign lying face down in the gravel at Sam's Auto & Diesel is a reminder that business casualties in the United States' war on terrorism are cutting into the nation's economic fabric.

Owner Sam Probert closed the repair shop in this town of 290 after his mechanic, Jim Rasmussen, was mobilized in January with the Utah National Guard for an 18-month stint in Iraq, his second since the war began in 2003. Probert runs a big-truck repair business with four other mechanics in Fillmore, about 25 miles away and with nearly eight times the population.
Now, Probert has rerouted the shop's number to his cell phone and does whatever repair work and towing that he can there after hours.

Small private firms are particularly hard-hit when they lose key employees or workers with highly specialized skills, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It's estimated that smaller firms employ 18 percent of all reservists, and that businesses with 100 to 499 workers and self-employed reservists make up an additional 35 percent.

'There is little information about the type and magnitude of the disruption that firms experience when their reservist employees or reservist owners are activated," Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the CBO, testified before the Senate committee in September. "As a result, the impact of call-ups on businesses has not been systematically examined.'"

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3426729

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget has updated core financial-system requirements that agencies must fulfill to meet federal guidelines to better manage their programs under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act.

The updates reflect recent changes in regulations and central agency reporting systems, such as the Treasury Department’s new Governmentwide Accounting program, said OMB Controller Linda Combs in the document released today [Monday]. "

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/38075-1.html

[admin]

"To help blunt the frequency of identity theft, lawmakers need to address gaps in federal requirements for safeguarding Social Security numbers shared with private-sector contractors, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office.

In its report, the GAO examined how certain industries share consumer SSNs with contractors; the safeguards and notable industry standards in place to ensure protection of Social Security numbers when shared with contractors; and how federal agencies regulate and monitor the sharing and safeguarding of Social Security numbers between private entities and their contractors.

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=18784

[admin]

"Unforeseen spending on the post-hurricane clean-up operation and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to push up the US budget deficit this year compared to last, while renewed tax cuts will prolong the deficit, according to the latest Congressional Budget Office report.

The CBO, a non-partisan arm of Congress, stated in a report released last week that the budget deficit will rise to at least $337 billion this year and may well exceed $400 billion because of tax cuts and new spending, in line with the expectations of many economists.

The CBO data also suggests that President Bush is unlikely to be able to keep his 2004 promise to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his term."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story_open.asp?storyname=22534

[admin]

"Having failed over the past 41?2 years to convince Congress of the virtues of e-government, the Office of Management and Budget is making an unprecedented attempt to sell the idea to lawmakers and secure funding for fiscal 2006.

Agencies are slated to swap a little more than $192.9 million dollars among themselves to keep 19 E-Gov- ernment and five Line of Business initiatives running over the next eight months. But restrictive language in appropriation bills has put that funding in jeopardy and potentially could hamstring a number of high-profile projects, compelling administration officials to make their case to appropriations committee staff members like never before.

OMB officials said they welcome this 'unprecedented level of transparency of how agencies are implementing and benefiting from the E-Government initiatives.' OMB officials are armed with a greater degree of detail than ever before—breaking spending down by agency and by project to make sure lawmakers get a clear picture of where the money is going."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/25_3/news/38180-1.html

[admin]

The head of the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said yesterday that he has been frustrated in his efforts to persuade Congress and the intelligence agencies to allow his agency to monitor the effectiveness of the nation's intelligence agencies as they pursue new programs to track terrorism.

Comptroller General David M. Walker said in an interview that over the past 10 years the GAO has been asked only a few times to produce reports on intelligence programs, even though his staff has the expertise, authority and security clearances to do so for most programs.

With the intelligence failures of the past four years, new post-Sept. 11 intelligence policies and the debate over the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program, 'it's clear that additional oversight is necessary,' Walker said. 'We stand ready to assist Congress if they so desire, but as of yet, the requests have not been forthcoming.'

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.intel04feb04,1,1306366.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

[admin]

"More than 140 federal programs could be eliminated or reduced according to a document the Office of Management and Budget released late last week.

In the Major Savings and Reforms Volume and in President George W. Bush’s proposed FY 2007 budget, OMB listed 141 federal programs that are being proposed for termination or reduction.

'When President Bush gave me guidance on what the 2007 budget should look like, he directed me to focus on national priorities and tighten our belt elsewhere,” said OMB Director Joshua B. Bolten. “Congress substantially delivered on the President’s spending restraint goals last year, and after speaking with members at this week’s Congressional hearings, I’m optimistic we can again provide a significant level of savings for American taxpayers.'"

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.fednews-online.com/view_publication.aspx?publicationId=8885

[admin]

The Homeland Security Department has been so slow in assessing and testing basic system security and privacy controls for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology that it may be jeopardizing the success of the program, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

U.S. Visit uses sophisticated technology systems to check fingerprints and photographs from foreign visitors arriving in the United States to verify their identities. The multibillion-dollar program is intended to serve as one of the cornerstones of the nation’s immigration and border control policy.

GAO has been reviewing the program’s effectiveness since 2002, and has made 18 strategic recommendations for management improvements.

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/38273-1.html

[admin]

The Office of Management and Budget reported in the fiscal 2007 budget request that the contract with Oracle Corp. under the enterprise software initiative known as SmartBuy saved the government more than $174.8 million in its first six months.


Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/25_4/news/38291-1.html

[admin]

"Government Accountability Office study released Monday, titled 'Media Contracts: Activities and Financial Obligations For Seven Federal Departments,' shows that the Bush administration has spent more than $1.6 billion on public relations and media spending during the last 2½ years.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and others requested the report a year ago after disclosures that the administration had paid PR firms to produce "covert propaganda" to advance several of its initiatives. Among the notable revelations was one in January 2005 that the Department of Education had paid conservative columnist Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. "

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/13/politics/main1312673.shtml

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget continues to work with federal agencies as they face a crucial deadline next month for implementing earned-value management principles for their major IT investments, an OMB official said.

Stacie Boyd, policy analyst in OMB’s E-Government and IT division, said yesterday that although some agencies are struggling to meet the upcoming March 31 deadline to begin independently verifying and validating the cost, schedule and performance baselines for all ongoing major IT projects, OMB is confident that the government has made great strides in adopting EVM and the end result will be a transformation in how agencies manage contracts."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/38331-1.html

[admin]

"States require an array of warnings on food labels, a mandate the House is seeking to undo, critics warned Tuesday.
The food industry, which is backing a bill to remove many warnings, says many labels would remain.

The bill would prohibit states from creating rules that are different from federal requirements. Under the bill, states that want tougher laws could seek an exemption from the Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office says it's not clear how far the bill would go. Still, CBO expects about 200 state laws would be affected. The government would spend an estimated $100 million to answer states' requests to set tougher rules, CBO said."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801264.html

[admin]

"The Government Accountability Office is offering business leaders a chance to experience public service from the inside.
Government is at its best when it can benefit from a range of ideas and expertise.

The Government Accountability Office has launched a new program to give private sector employees a unique opportunity to work on meaningful projects and help transform how GAO does business.

GAO's Executive Exchange program brings in executives with expertise in accounting, finance, information technology, law, and other specialties."

To Read More, Click Here:
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=29&sid=343259

[admin]

"Federal government agencies have improved their overall computer and network security over the past year, but many agencies are still not doing enough to secure their systems against viruses and other cyber attacks, according to an annual report released by The White House last week.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget issued the findings as part of its yearly review of how well agencies are meeting the standards set forth in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which establishes specific requirements for information security programs at federal agencies. Lawmakers in the U.S. House have used OMB's findings for the past several years to issue 'computer security report cards' to federal agencies. Last year, the House Government Reform Committee awarded federal agencies a combined grade of 'D-plus' for security in 2004, up from a 'D' in 2003. Another round of report cards are likely to be issued later this month."

Click Here to Read More:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/03/omb_modest_improvement_in_fede.html

[admin]

"Congressional auditors are concerned that federal agencies lack sufficient guidance from the Office of Management and Budget on how to conduct background checks on foreign nationals before issuing them computer-readable identity credentials. Beginning Oct. 27, agencies must issue smart cards to federal employees and contractors.

Government Accountability Office auditors warn in a new report that the federal government might miss the October deadline. The GAO report also questions whether the federal government can accomplish the major objective of the secure identity credentialing program: a standard credential that authorized employees can use to access federal facilities and federal information systems."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.fcw.com/article92522-03-13-06-Print

[admin]

"In a newly-issued update to one of its previous studies on the utilization of tax incentives for retirement savings, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that an increase in participation in defined contribution plans during the study period was offset by a corresponding drop in defined benefit plan participation.

The initial study examined participation rates and contributions to employment-based retirement plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and Keogh plans in 1997. The study update covered plans during 2000 and considered vehicles, such as Roth IRAs, simplified employee pensions (SEPs), and SIMPLE plans, not available during the initial study."

Click Here to Read More:
http://hr.cch.com/news/pension/031406a.asp

[admin]

"Uncertainties cling to a governmentwide mandatory effort to consolidate information technology systems for financial management, Office of Management and Budget officials acknowledged Wednesday.

'There's a lot of questions out there that we still need to answer,' said Karen Evans, OMB administrator of e-government and information technology. She testified at a hearing called by the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability.

OMB spearheads an effort initiated in 2004 to consolidate the government's financial management systems within a handful of agencies, which will charge fees to their client agencies. The General Services Administration and the departments of Interior, Treasury and Transportation have been designated as service providers. Private sector companies also are eligible to compete."

Click Here to Read More: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33619&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

"A U.S. regulator has agreed to steps aimed at improving its handling of bank customers' complaints amid concerns from some officials and groups that the agency is too pro-bank, according to a report released on Monday.

The Government Accountability Office said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a national bank regulator, had agreed to develop and implement a mechanism to collect feedback from consumers who submit complaints or inquiries.

The OCC also agreed to revise the data it publicly reports to separate the tally of complaints resolved within 60 days from data on its response to inquiries, which take less time."

Click Here to Read More:
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-03-27T205926Z_01_N27308565_RTRIDST_0_FINANCIAL-BANKING.XML

[admin]

"A three-year closure of the country's two largest ports, in Long Beach, Calif., and Los Angeles, would reduce the nation's economic growth by as much as half a percentage point, or about $70 billion a year, according to a congressional study.

The Congressional Budget Office, in a report requested by a Senate homeland security subcommittee, said an unexpected three-year halt to traffic in goods through Long Beach and Los Angeles would increase inflation by about two percentage points in the first year but then level off.

In addition, employment levels would be about 1 million jobs lower during the three-year period, the CBO said.
The CBO was charged with analyzing 'the national economic costs of disruptions in container traffic, regardless of their cause.' A Senate committee conducted hearings Thursday on the security of the nation's seaports -- an issue that took on added significance in the wake of the Dubai Ports World controversy."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B132E1E56%2D5ED0%2D481C%2D954D%2 D525AFF2EA582%7D&siteid=google

[admin]

"In the Rose Garden this week, Andy Card stood close enough to the American flag that he was almost lost in the shrubbery. To some of the photographers recording a solemn President Bush standing amid his grim-faced Cabinet secretaries, Bush's outgoing chief of staff was nearly invisible.

The scene, however improvised, summed up Card's preferred style as the president's top aide for a startlingly long 63 months: supportive of the team; comfortable on the sidelines; wrapped from head to toe in the red, white, and blue. Standing behind Bush, Card's just-announced successor, Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolten, was more visible."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0406/040306ol.htm

[admin]

"Since November 2002, 51 federal agencies -- about half of the executive branch -- have offered cash buyouts and early retirements to reshape their workforces, according to a recently released report from congressional auditors.

The findings confirm what many federal employees have suspected -- that buyout offers have been increasing in recent years. The report by the Government Accountability Office counted at least 22,600 employees who left the government after accepting a buyout, early-out or combined package during fiscal years 2003 through 2005.

The GAO tally did not include the Defense Department, which has independent authority to offer buyouts and is not tracked by a database at the Office of Personnel Management."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301757.html

[admin]

"The Government Accountability Office gave a thumbs-up to the Internal Revenue Service's $11-billion budget request, saying that the agency appears to have recognized that throwing money at enforcement can only reduce the tax gap so much.

The GAO said that the IRS's 2007 budget request is a small decrease after adjusting for inflation, and sets performance goals for service and enforcement that are all equal to, or higher than, its 2006 goals."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=19853

[admin]

"The U.S. government posted an $85.47 billion federal budget deficit in March -- its highest in history for that month, the U.S. Treasury Department reported on Wednesday.

On March 3, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the U.S. budget deficit for the full fiscal 2006 year, which ends on September 30, will hit $371 billion.

That would be up from a $318 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2005 and would put the deficit at 2.8 percent of gross domestic product compared with 2.6 percent last year, CBO said."

Click Here to Read More:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-04-12T185130Z_01_N12191928_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-BUDGET.xml

[admin]

"The benefits of major new federal regulations in fiscal 2005 far outweighed the costs, according to a draft report released this week by the Office of Management and Budget.

The 13 major rules for which OMB was able to gather costs and benefits cost the national economy between $4.3 billion and $6.6 billion in fiscal 2005 and provided benefits worth anywhere from $28 billion to $178 billion. Estimates for eight other major rules were not available, including two homeland security-related rules for which reviewers noted that enhanced security benefits were particularly difficult to assess.

The draft report was announced in an April 13 Federal Register notice, and OMB will accept public comments on it until July 12."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33850&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

"Despite more than four years of legislation, executive orders and presidential directives, the Bush administration has yet to comprehensively improve sharing of counterterrorism information among dozens of federal agencies -- and between them and thousands of nonfederal partners, government investigators have concluded.

Repeated deadlines set by both President Bush and Congress have not been met, according to a 34-page report issued late Monday by the Government Accountability Office. While acknowledging the 'complexity of the task,' the report notes that responsibility for the effort has shifted since late 2001 from the White House to the Office of Management and Budget to the Department of Homeland Security, and now resides with the director of national intelligence. 'None has yet completed the task,' the report noted."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041801629.html

[admin]

"With the government spending nearly $65 billion a year on IT products and services, federal officials urged a gathering of mostly industry executives to offer innovative ideas as the administration begins work on developing the new IT infrastructure line of business.

'We want the best that you can throw at this, because there’s a lot of money involved,' Tim Young, associate administrator of E-government IT at the Office of Management and Budget, said today.

Young and officials from both OMB and the General Services Administration, speaking at a practitioner’s day on the IT infrastructure LOB, said the government is seeking all ideas on how it can drive down costs while increasing performance."

Click Here to Read More: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/40452-1.html

[admin]

"A U.S. government report says the Food and Drug Administration has unclear drug safety policies and sometimes excludes safety experts from important meetings.

The Government Accountability Office inquiry was requested by Congress in 2004 after the sudden withdrawal of the blockbuster painkiller Vioxx, which was found to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes in long-term users.

The GAO concluded that the agency's entire system for reviewing the safety of drugs already on the market is too limited and broadly flawed."

Click Here to Read More:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060424-013340-2609r

[admin]

"Agencies are increasingly using each other’s contracts when buying goods and services. Purchases made through interagency contracts added up to $139 billion in 2004, or 40 percent of the government’s total procurement spending, according to a panel of experts looking for ways to reform the government’s procurement system.

The problem, however, say experts and government auditors, is there is little clarity in the rules for how they are to be used. What are the roles and responsibilities of agencies that negotiate and own the contracts? And what are those of the customer agency that is using another agency’s contract?

Those are the questions that procurement experts and administration officials are busily trying to answer and clarify right now."

Click here for more information:
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=1730246

[admin]

"For a year federal agencies have been directed to not use brand names in contract solicitations and requests for proposals.

To microprocessor makers such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. the regulation meant agencies’ requests for proposals worth more than $25,000 could not specify Intel Corp.’s processors, for example, unless the agency could justify why a certain brand name was needed.

The Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum last week that gives the regulation some muscle. While the existing guidance has the force of law, OMB has taken the additional step of publishing it in the Federal Acquisition Regulation. "

For more information:
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/40571-1.html

[admin]

"State Department efforts to reach more than 1.5 billion Muslims in 58 countries to counter anti-American criticism lack a strong central message and a strategic plan of communication, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.

Last year, the department spent $597 million on public diplomacy under the direction of Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, and spending is due to increase this year."

For more information:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050301595.html

[admin]

"The U.S. budget deficit this year could dip to as low as $300 billion, well below the White House's estimate, partly because the federal government was enjoying "robust growth" in revenues, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday."

For more information:
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-05-04T225339Z_01_N04112684_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-DEFICIT.XML

[admin]

"Extending a May 15 deadline for senior citizens to sign up for a new U.S. prescription drug insurance plan would cost the government $100 million this year and $3.4 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday.

The nonpartisan CBO also estimated that about 10 million Medicare beneficiaries who are eligible for the prescription drug program this year will instead enroll over the next three years.

The agency also estimated that about 1 million of those beneficiaries would enroll this year if the deadline was extended to December 31.

CBO said the revenue loss mostly would be related to late-enrollment penalties that would not be collected. "

For more information:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1938177

[admin]

"Although 30 million American households have adopted broadband services, FCC data that tracks broadband availability in the country "has some weaknesses" and should be augmented, according to a new government study.

A 70-page study released by the General Accounting Office (GAO) early this month says the FCC's data on broadband availability in the United States may be a little misleading. The GAO study says that only 28 percent of Americans had broadband connections last year, which is at odds with the FCC's conclusion that 99 percent of Americans live in areas where they can access at least one broadband provider."

For more information:
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA6333585.html

[admin]

"Pentagon officials on Thursday said that a critical government review of their efforts to treat soldiers who may be suffering from post-combat stress was “flawed.”

“No military in the history of the world has done more to evaluate, prevent and treat the mental health needs and concerns of its soldiers than this Department of Defense,” said William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

He was responding to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday that found that eight out of 10 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder were not referred for further mental health treatment. The results of the study were first revealed in The Kansas City Star."

For more information:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/14558676.htm

[admin]

"The government won't be ready for another major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina unless the Pentagon takes a more aggressive role in the federal response, congressional investigators said Monday.

Poor planning and confusion about the military's role contributed to problems after the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005, and without immediate attention improvement is unlikely, the Government Accountability Office said.

It urged the Defense Department to establish procedures to speed aircraft, troops and reconnaissance gear to hurricane-stricken areas when local and state officials are overwhelmed as well as beef up communications support to Homeland Security officials, who have the lead role in a disaster."

For more information:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14587702.htm

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget re-emphasized agencies’ duty to protect personal information, in a memo released May 22, as concern grows over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ loss of the personally identifiable information — including Social Security numbers — of millions of veterans.


OMB directed agencies to review policies for safeguarding personal information and include the findings in their upcoming Federal Information Security Management Act reports due this fall. "

For more information:
http://www.fcw.com/article94612-05-23-06-Web

[admin]

"Portman, a former GOP congressman from Cincinnati, replaces White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The 50-year-old Portman left a career on the House GOP leadership track to join the administration about a year ago, and he promptly helped win House passage of the controversial CAFTA accord by the narrowest of margins.

He was confirmed as OMB chief by a voice vote without opposition."

For more information:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197203,00.html

[admin]

"New figures from the state Office of Management and Budget show that legislators signed off on about $8.5 billion in total spending for the upcoming state fiscal year 2007 when they adjourned the regular 2006 session in Juneau May 9.

Almost half of that, or $4.123 billion, will be funded by state general fund revenues, and is about $1 billion more than the current year. The FY 2006 appropriation of general funds, for the current FY 2006 budget, was $3.246 billion.

The rest of the budget is paid for from federal funds and a variety of other revenues to state entities, such as fees paid by airlines at state-owned airports and tuition paid by University of Alaska students. Fiscal 2006 ends June 30, and FY 2007 begins July 1."

For more information:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/060406/hom_20060604096.shtml

[admin]

"A U.S. Senate proposal for a privately funded trust to pay asbestos injury claims is laden with uncertainty and taxpayers risk footing the bill, the former head of the Congressional Budget Office plans to tell a Senate committee on Wednesday."

For more information:
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=2006-06-06T233129Z_01_N06445990_RTRIDST_0_CONGRESS-ASBESTOS-RISK.XML

[admin]

"The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus claims to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for football-season tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster-relief agency."

For more information:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003059911_fraud14.html

[admin]

"Sensitive information on millions of U.S. military personnel and veterans remains at grave risk because of weak security controls that have not yet been fixed, government investigators said Wednesday.

In testimony to Congress, the Government Accountability Office and Veterans Affairs inspector general detailed ignored warnings, weak management and lax rules in their review of VA information security following the theft of 26.5 million military personnel's private data last month."

For more information:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061400890.html

[admin]

"Clay Johnson needed a minute or two before giving his views on the scathing evaluation of e-government included in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education fiscal 2007 appropriations bill.

“Let me find the right words here,” said the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, when asked about provisions that require career program managers to certify that certain e-government projects are actually saving agencies money. "

For more information:
http://www.gcn.com/print/25_16/41052-1.html

[admin]

"A proposal to change the way companies account for assets and liabilities would simplify the accounting rules that spawned errors at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Congressional Budget Office said in a paper.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's plan would give companies an option to account for most of their assets and liabilities on a fair value basis. Specifically, it would give companies flexibility in accounting for derivatives versus the stricter interpretations of rule FAS 133, the CBO said in a paper posted on its Web site."

For more information:
http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-06-23T213420Z_01_N23322386_RTRIDST_0_FINANCIAL-AGENCIES-FASB.XML&rpc=66

[admin]

"The Bush administration is giving federal civilian agencies 45 days to implement new measures to protect the security of personal information that agencies hold on millions of employees and citizens.

The new security guidelines, issued Friday by the White House Office of Management and Budget, cap a month marked by data thefts or disclosures at five different agencies that compromised Social Security numbers and other private data on millions of people."

For more information:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062700540.html

[admin]

"A new GAO report released today by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Rep. John D. Dingell, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, Rep. Pete Stark, and Rep. Sherrod Brown finds that the call centers run by private Medicare drug plans provide inaccurate and incomplete information most of the time. According to GAO, the private plans that are responsible for running the new Medicare drug benefit "did not consistently provide callers with accurate and complete information."

For More Information: http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_38677.shtml

[admin]

"In an effort to improve the federal response to data breaches putting personal information such as Social Security numbers at risk, the Office of Management and Budget is eliminating the distinction between suspected and confirmed breaches for reporting purposes."

For More Information:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0706/071406p1.htm

[admin]

"The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report released last week that the federal government needs to strengthen its processes for identifying and overseeing high-risk IT projects. But the GAO's recommendations were all rebuffed by Karen Evans, the de facto federal CIO.

The GAO's report assessed processes put in place in response to an August 2005 directive in which the White House Office of Management and Budget ordered agencies to identify high-risk projects and provide quarterly reports on those failing to meet certain performance criteria."

For More Information:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=government&articleId=112476&taxonomyId=13

[admin]

"WASHINGTON — A congressional investigation has discounted any danger that a wave of retiring baby boomers will cause a precipitous decline in the stock market by suddenly selling off their financial assets.

The Government Accountability Office concluded most boomers have few assets to sell, retirees tend to spend their assets slowly, longer life expectancies may stretch that out even more and many will probably continue working past their normal retirement ages."

For More Information: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4079819.html

[admin]

"WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, issued the following statement yesterday after the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the House Republican pension bill (H.R. 4) passed late Friday night would increase pension underfunding over the next five years and increase claims against the federal pension insurance agency by a quarter of a billion dollars."

For More Information: http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=12050

[admin]

"Cost estimates on a proposed Web database that lists who gets federal funds would stretch to $15 million from fiscal 2007 to 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The legislation would require the Office of Management and Budget to oversee the creation of the searchable database that would include detailed information on all federal grants, contracts and other funding awarded to public and private organizations. The government currently collects the information required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act."

For More Information:
http://www.fcw.com/article95625-08-10-06-Web

[admin]

"The federal deficit will shrink dramatically this year but will total $1.76 trillion over the next decade, and could be double that estimate if President Bush's tax cuts are made permanent, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

The $260 billion deficit forecast for the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30, is $112 billion below the office's last estimate, in March."

For More Information: http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/08/17/ap2957507.html

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget has revised its guidelines for the minimum requirements for audits of federal financial statements. OMB issued a bulletin today outlining the changes, which include redefining some terms to align them more closely with their private-sector meanings.

The changes, which OMB drafted in coordination with inspectors general, apply to audits of financial statements of all executive departments, agencies and government corporations."

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article95804-08-25-06-Web

[admin]

"WASHINGTON — A $1.4 billion anti-drug advertising campaign conducted by the U.S. government since 1998 does not appear to have helped reduce drug use and instead might have convinced some youths that taking illegal drugs is normal, the Government Accountability Office says.
The GAO report, released Friday, urges Congress to stop the White House's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign unless drug czar John Walters can come up with a better strategy. President Bush's budget for 2007 asks Congress for $120 million for the campaign, a $20 million increase from this year."

For More Information: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-28-anti-drug-ads_x.htm

[admin]

"The Government Accountability Office recently urged the Office of Management and Budget to step up federal audit requirements slowly, to allow agencies time to first reach stricter standards that went into effect in June.

In a Tuesday letter to leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Government Reform committees, McCoy Williams, GAO's director of financial management and assurance, presented the agency's analysis of a recent cost-benefit study conducted by the Chief Financial Officers Council and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, an association of presidentially appointed inspectors general."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34947&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget Thursday removed the veil surrounding agencies’ information technology projects that are on OMB’s Management Watch List and High Risk List.

Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology, speaking Thursday at an Association For Federal Information Resources Management luncheon, announced the posting of the list, which had not been made public before."

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article96193-09-21-06-Web

[admin]

Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman addressed federal officials and academics at a luncheon Tuesday, speaking specifically about management issues for the first time publicly since he took office in May.

Drawing on his own congressional background as a 12-year representative from Ohio, Portman said OMB needs to provide more and better information to lawmakers so they can understand the benefits of management initiatives.

[admin]

"Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman addressed federal officials and academics at a luncheon Tuesday, speaking specifically about management issues for the first time publicly since he took office in May.

Drawing on his own congressional background as a 12-year representative from Ohio, Portman said OMB needs to provide more and better information to lawmakers so they can understand the benefits of management initiatives."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0906/092606m1.htm

[admin]

"Last week, the White House budget office posted a paper on one of the Bush administration's Web sites ( http://www.results.gov ) that, from its perspective, tried to set the record straight on the president's management agenda for the government.

That agenda has been controversial since it began five years ago -- in part because it promotes contracting out federal work and more rigorous approaches to measuring the performance of employees and programs. It's safe to predict that a number of the "facts" in this new paper will be disputed by federal unions and in some quarters of Congress."

For More Information: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/08/AR2006100800672.html

[admin]

"Officials from the White House and Small Business Administration formally unveiled a revamped Web site that provides small businesses with a compendium of federal regulations information.

The site, Business.gov, contains data on federal rules and requirements that all businesses must follow, including environmental regulations, taxes and office safety requirements.

It also contains a search function that lets small business owners search through a broad array of regulatory information."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42289-1.html

[admin]

"WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security used "unreliable data" -- and ignored its own test results -- to justify spending $1.2 billion for a new generation of radiation detectors designed to stop the smuggling of nuclear weapons into this country, according to the Government Accountability Office.

At best, the new technology identified hidden, highly enriched uranium only about half of the time in tests -- far lower than the government's goal of 95 percent, the report found."

For More Information:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usradi1018,0,4731516.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

[admin]

"The Army has lost an extraordinary bid to capture a larger share of the fiscal 2008 Defense budget, with Office of Management and Budget officials agreeing to give the heavily deployed military service $121 billion next year -- nearly $18 billion below what senior officers say they need, several defense sources familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1006/102506cdpm1.htm

[admin]

"The Army has lost an extraordinary bid to capture a larger share of the fiscal 2008 Defense budget, with Office of Management and Budget officials agreeing to give the heavily deployed military service $121 billion next year -- nearly $18 billion below what senior officers say they need, several defense sources familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1006/102506cdpm1.htm

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget is looking for proof that agencies are issuing new identity cards as directed under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

In a recent memo, Karen Evans, OMB administrator of E-Government and IT, said agencies must electronically submit copies of the first HSPD-12-compliant ID card three days after it has been issued."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42427-1.html

[admin]

"Regardless of what happens in Tuesday's mid-term elections and in the 2008 presidential race, the fundamentals of the Bush administration's management agenda most likely are here to stay, officials said Thursday.

In the area of information technology, for example, "I really find it hard to believe ... that a president would come in and say, 'I really don't care about privacy, so everything you were doing in the area of privacy -- forget it, throw it out,'" said Karen Evans, head of e-government and IT for the Office of Management and Budget. She said a new administration in 2008 might make changes in where investments are made to reflect different priorities, but the basic elements of IT management likely will remain the same."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1106/110206m1.htm

[admin]

"Washington (Nov. 15, 2006) - The Government Accountability Office has given good marks to the Internal Revenue Service’s 2005 and 2006 financial statements, but said that the agency did have to overcome “serious internal control and financial management systems deficiencies.”

While the GAO said the statements are fairly presented in all material respects, it noted that because of the internal control issues, the IRS had to rely on “resource-intensive compensating processes to prepare its financial statements.” Without better controls in place, the GAO said that the agency’s timeliness in detecting potential problems was a risk."

For More Information: http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=22502

[admin]

"The Justice Department's classification program, which determines what information could reasonably be expected to damage the country's national security if disclosed publicly, is at risk because of a lack of adequate staffing, according to a government report.
In a 50-page report yesterday, the Government Accountability Office said the department's classification-management program needs to assess its "optimum" manpower requirements, develop a strategy to meet them, and then implement internal controls "to ensure proper use of sensitive but unclassified designations."

For More Information: http://washingtontimes.com/national/20061121-105652-4459r.htm

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget should better document its reasons for giving agencies green ratings on its financial performance scorecard, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Overall, GAO praised OMB’s effort in a Nov. 16 report: “The Improved Financial Management Performance Initiative scorecard process has clearly been a catalyst to improve financial management and to encourage agency managers to use financial data to enhance decision making.”

In interviews, agency officials generally said the process made top officials focus on financial management, according to GAO."

For More Information: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2371446

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum earlier this month alerting departments to revisions of the business rules for intragovernmental transactions pertaining to fiduciary activities and exchange-type transactions.

Fiduciary activities must now include a date specification to begin queuing and using first in first out methods to redeem and sell securities. Exchange-type transactions now must include a list of specific data elements needed for an interagency transaction. Also, the new revisions allow agencies to delete rules prohibiting advanced payment, an OMB spokesperson said."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42681-1.html

[admin]

"The Executive Branch Management Score Card that measures the use of e-government in agencies neglects citizen input, according to a new report.

The Office of Management and Budget scores agencies quarterly on how well they are instituting the President's Management Agenda, but the scoring leaves goals related to citizens untracked, said Jenny Whitmer, senior research analyst at Government Insights, an IDC company, and author of the report, “Citizen-Centered eGovernment Needs Performance Measures for Success.”

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article97073-12-11-06-Web

[admin]

"A multi-billion dollar system of electronic entry and exit checkpoints at U.S. border crossings is suffering from lax controls and inadequate management oversight that are undermining its effectiveness, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office.

GAO inspectors found that 12 US-Visit entry and exit systems in various parts of the country suffered from computer processing problems that could cause oversights or delays in monitoring the flow of temporary visitors in and out of the country."

For More Information:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196700122

[admin]

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has potentially lost tens of millions of dollars through improper and fraudulent payments issued during its Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relief efforts, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The report titled, "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Disaster Relief: Continued Findings of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (.pdf)," indicates that of the $1.4 billion in estimated potentially fraudulent and improper payments made by FEMA, only pennies on the dollar --$7 million thus far-- have been recovered."

For More Information: http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/a/217447.htm

[admin]

"Boeing asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to dismiss protests by Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky against the awarding of the Air Force combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter program contract to Boeing, but the GAO in late December said it planned to continue its review, industry sources said.

The Air Force awarded Boeing the contract on Nov. 9 to build more than 140 CSAR-X helicopters. The Boeing winner, the HH-47, is another variant of its Chinook fleet."

For More Information: http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/channel_aerospacedaily_story.jsp?id=news/CSAR01037.xml

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget released an exposure draft of 10 metrics to assess financial services across government as part of the Financial Management Line of Business. The metrics are meant to identify areas to improve the performance and affordability of financial services that shared-services providers and agencies supply.

OMB established the metrics in collaboration with the Financial Systems Integration Office and the financial-management community. The measures support provisions in the migration planning guidance from OMB and FSIO in September to help agencies determine how to move to the Financial Management Line of Business."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42860-1.html

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget is pushing agencies to the General Services Administration’s contracts for credit monitoring services.

A Dec. 22, 2006, memo requires agencies to consider GSA’s service offerings along with any other monitoring services they are researching. Agencies also must tell GSA officials and Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and information technology, how any new agreement beats GSA’s deals."

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article97278-01-05-07-Web

[admin]

"U.S. President George W. Bush Thursday gave the White House Office of Management and Budget broad new authority over federal agencies.
In amendments to a Clinton administration executive order, Bush required federal agencies to install presidential appointees as their internal-agency regulatory heads, reporting to OMB, the White House said.
The amendments also make agency "guidance documents" -- recommendations that clarify regulatory provisions -- undergo the same OMB scrutiny as regulations themselves.
Non-profit advocacy group OMB Watch alleged the amendments "establish President Bush's anti-regulatory agenda and make it more difficult for agencies to fulfill their role as protectors of the public."
The White House had no immediate comment on the OMB Watch charge."

For More Information: http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070118-080407-1775r.htm

[admin]

"The Energy Department needs more money in order to find ways to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, and mitigate the environmental harm caused by burning fossil fuels, the investigative arm of Congress said Friday.

Adjusting for inflation, the department's research and development budget for renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy technologies fell by 85.6 percent between 1978 and 2005, when funding stood at $793 million. And less money has led to a narrower focus on alternatives to fossil fuels, such as ethanol, wind, and solar technologies, the Government Accountability Office said in a report."

For More Information: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MOK6600.htm

[admin]

The Office of Management and Budget intends to improve communications with federal employees by using a retooled President’s Management Agenda Web site, Results.gov.

Until now, OMB officials used Results.gov primarily as a place to post the results of the quarterly PMA score card, which measure how well agencies are doing in different areas, such as workforce, competitive sourcing and e-government.

But as part of a relaunch announced Feb. 1, OMB is looking to the Web site as a way to exchange ideas with employees about good management practices, building on the management improvements achieved through PMA over the last five years.

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article97541-02-02-07-Web

[admin]

The Homeland Security Department is requiring applicants for urban area security grants to provide more detailed justifications for their requests, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

With the change, future allocations will depend more on applicants' ability to prove a threat and demonstrate the need for further security measures, the report stated.


The study (GAO-07-381R) -- a supplement following up on a Nov. 17, 2006, briefing -- comes after lawmakers expressed concerns over cuts in grants for fiscal 2006. The handling that year raised "questions and concerns" about the "validity, relevance, reliability [and] timeliness" of risk factors incorporated into grant decisions, the lawmakers said in seeking the review.

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0207/020907j1.htm

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget plans to evaluate the four main agencies involved with health IT on how well they provide information on quality and cost to consumers.

In addition to the increased accountability, government agencies will have to add to their contracts with service providers standards developed by the American Health Information Community, a public-private advisory group led by the Health and Human Services Department."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/print/26_04/43168-1.html

[admin]

"With about 10 months until the congressionally mandated deadline to put all federal contract and grant spending in a database and online, the Office of Management and Budget is asking for public comment on how best to implement the law.

OMB launched a Web site, www.federalspending.gov, to collect these comments and set out an implementation timeline and the first set of frequently asked questions.

The site also includes links to existing sources of federal contract and grant data, including the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation, the Federal Assistance Award Data System for grants and fedspending.org, the site developed by OMB Watch, a nonprofit organization in Washington."

For More Information: http://www.gcn.com/print/26_04/43146-1.html

[admin]

"Seven major regulations adopted over the past year provide between $6.3 billion and $44.8 billion in benefits annually, while costing just $3.7 billion to $4.2 billion per year, according to a draft report by the Office of Management and Budget.

In an initial draft for comment of an annual report on the costs and benefits of federal regulations, OMB wrote that from fiscal 1997 through fiscal 2006, major rules whose impacts could be easily quantified accounted for between $99 billion to $484 billion in benefits, with costs of between $40 billion and $46 billion."

For More Information: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36342&dcn=todaysnews

[admin]

The Office of Management and Budget’s decision to require agencies to move to a standard desktop configuration for Microsoft Windows is as much about timing as it is about evolution.

With Microsoft’s recent release of Vista, its new operating system, and the Air Force and Army implementing a baseline configuration for Windows XP, OMB officials are hoping the government will take a significant step toward improving
governmentwide cybersecurity. Some experts have called it the biggest opportunity ever for improving cybersecurity in the government.

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article98050-03-26-07-Print

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration have awarded a SmartBuy enterprise license deal to McAfee for its antivirus software and finally will announce it as early as April 9.

McAfee officials confirmed the deal was completed in December 2006 but kept it under wraps since then. They could not say why the deal wasn’t announced sooner."

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article98179-04-06-07-Web

[admin]

Political officials throughout the Bush administration have edited and manipulated climate science communications, according to a recent report by a nonprofit watchdog group. Evidence shows the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to be involved in the manipulation.

For More Information: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3783

[admin]

"Federal employees used to tweaking their computers’ operating systems and officials responsible for information technology contracts will face changes under the Office of Management and Budget’s requirement that agencies adopt a standard desktop configuration for Microsoft Windows.

The mandate means OMB will block users across government from having administrative access to their desktops, senior IT officials said at an April 11 panel discussion. The policy will also require that IT contracts, starting almost immediately, include language assuring that vendors’ products work with the standard configuration, officials said."

For More Information: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2677936

[admin]

If weapons costs grow in the near future as they have over the past 30 years, spending requirements for the Defense Department's planned purchases in 2011 - excluding cost risk associated with ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - would average about $195 billion annually, or $19 billion more than the Bush administration has outlined, congressional budgeters have reported.

But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, in an update released April 23 to its report on the long-term implications of current defense plans, projects that if weapons costs do not grow as they have historically, weapons research and development spending will continue to increase more gradually, reaching about $195 billion by 2013 before falling off. (All figures are in fiscal 2007 dollars and are based on that year's budget plans.)

For More Information: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/CBO042407.xml&headline=CBO%20Warns%20Of%20Weapons%20Cost%20Infla tion

[admin]

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has primary responsibility for securing air cargo transported into the United States from another country, referred to as inbound air cargo, and preventing implements of terrorism from entering the country. GAO examined (1) what actions DHS has taken to secure inbound air cargo, and how, if at all, these efforts could be strengthened; and (2) what practices the air cargo industry and foreign governments have adopted that could enhance DHS's efforts to strengthen inbound air cargo security, and to what extent DHS has worked with foreign governments to enhance their air cargo security efforts. To conduct this study, GAO reviewed relevant DHS documents, interviewed DHS officials, and conducted site visits to seven countries in Europe and Asia."

For More Information: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/105258

[admin]

"The Office of Management and Budget plans to create a performance management council as part of a push to institutionalize the initiatives that comprise the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).

In comments e-mailed to agencies and posted on OMB’s results.gov Web site, OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson said that agencies now have better management capabilities than at the onset of the PMA in 2001."

For More Information: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2732601

[admin]

"An employees union could be in the Government Accountability Office’s future if GAO analysts formally decide later this year to unionize.

Officials from the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and GAO have begun a series of meetings to work out details for what will be the first union representation election in the agency’s 86-year history. The election is likely to take place in late spring or early summer, union officials said."

For More Information: http://www.fcw.com/article102706-05-14-07-Print