Spotlight: Turco leaving GSA for Veterans Affairs
Amendment to Senate farm bill reduces federal premium on crop insurance
The Senate passed an amendment to the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs bill that would reduce federal premium support for crop insurance participants that make more than $750,000 a year. In a 59 to 33 vote, the senate voted in the amendment added to the bill (S.954) that would reduce the federal government's premium burden by 15 percent.
IRS doesn't have data to analyze tax expenditures, GAO says
The Internal Revenue Service does not have sufficient data for identifying who claims a tax expenditure and how they claimed it for almost half of all tax expenditure examined in a recently released Government Accountability Office report (.pdf) from April 30.
Obama to propose lower cap on contractor executive reimbursement
President Obama this week will propose legislation that would reduce payments for executive compensation tied to cost reimbursment contracts, Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Joe Jordan said in a May 30 blog post.
GAO suggests ways VA can rein in fee-basis care costs
With the amount of money the Veterans Affairs Department spends on non-VA healthcare providers on the rise, the Government Accountability Office is pushing for better management and oversight of so-called fee-basis care.
Agency budgets should cut 5 percent for 2015, OMB says
Agencies' 2015 budget requests should be 5 percent less than what President Obama outlined for the fiscal 2014 budget proposal, a May 29 memo (.pdf) from Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell said. Agencies should also reduce discretionary funding totals 10 percent below what Obama set for 2015 in his fiscal 2014 budget plan, Burwell said.
House Appropriations Committee releases spending plan
The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee released a $972.6 billion discretionary spending plan (.pdf) to dole out money to agencies in the fiscal 2014 budget. That's $187 billion less in discretionary spending than President Obama's $1.16 trillion request (.pdf).
DoD needs function-based analysis of total workforce mix, GAO says
The Defense Department should adjust its policies to determine the appropriate mix of military, civilian and contractor personnel based on critical functions, and explain in the meantime how it projects contractor numbers when budgeting, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.
Q&A: Clay Johnson on RFP-EZ
"We put something out there. We worked within the confines of the law to put something out there, and we collected some data to inform policy in the future. That, to me, is the most interesting part of this project. We're really creating data that can not only inform product decisions but maybe policy decisions as we move forward," said Clay Johnson, former Presidential Innovation Fellow for the RFP-EZ team.
Park Police end furloughs, EPA reduces furlough hours
Two agencies ended furloughs early or reduced furlough hours on the heels of furlough Friday, a day when 5 percent of the federal workforce was forced to take an unpaid day off. But relief came this week for the EPA and the Park Police. Park Police furloughs will end June 1, a press release from the Fraternal Order of Police said.
USPS didn't utilize non-traditional workers to save money, IG says
If the Postal Service better utilized an agreement with the union to allow employees to work fewer hours, the agency could have saved almost $31 million in fiscal 2012, a May 17 USPS Inspector General report (.pdf) says. USPS and the American Postal Workers Union agreed in May 2011 to create two new types of workers, Non-traditional full-time and non-career postal support employees.
DoD must continue to educate military personnel to work with, manage civilian contractors, report says
Civilian contractors play a vital role in the Defense Department, but experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan with contractor-related waste and mismanagement led the military and Congress to rethink how they will be used in future operations.
DoD faces a decade of reduced capabilities, smaller forces
The long term effects of sequestration and budget cuts will affect the Defense Department by reducing readiness, acquisition and ultimately the overall size of the military, concluded top DoD officials at a recent defense industry event. The DoD will need to make the most of shrinking funds and balance between money for operations and research and development for the forseeable future, officials said.
HASC subcommittee approves language to prohibit new round of BRAC
The House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness doesn't want another round of Base Realignment and Closure, despite Defense Department officials saying it's needed to meet fiscal 2014 proposed budget cuts.
IRS needs more data to properly flag tax returns, GAO says
The IRS could improve operations by using more data to examine tax returns to see if they need to be flagged for review, a May 24 Government Accountability Office report (.pdf) says.
Only 27 percent surveyed think IRS doing good job, Gallup says
Public opinion of the Internal Revenue Services dropped significantly since last polled in 2009, a May 23 Gallup poll says. Only 27 percent of Americans give the IRS a positive rating, which is a 14 point drop from 2009, when 40 percent thought the IRS was doing a good job, the poll says.
Locals need help planning to mitigate infrastructure damage from climate change, GAO says
With climate change expected to pose a significant threat to infrastructure such as roads, bridges and wastewater systems, the federal government needs to work with local officials to start planning how to mitigate potential damage, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report (.pdf).
GAO: DoD fails to fully account for contractors performing inherently governmental functions
The Government Accountability Office says a haphazard Defense Department review of nearly $200 billion of annual contracted services makes it impossible to determine whether corrective actions were taken in cases where contractors were doing work government employees should be performing.
Sequestration affects third of Americans personally, poll says
Thirty-seven percent of Americans say sequestration cuts have negatively affected them, according to a poll (.pdf) released May 24 by ABC News and The Washington Post.
DoD must be more realistic about acquisition expectations, Kendall says
For the Defense Department to make more cost-effective acquisitions, the department must be more realistic about its program expectations and control costs through the life cycle of products, DoD Under-Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall said at a May 23 Center for Strategic and International Studies event.
