1. Panelists discuss evolving role of federal CFOs
By Amelia Gruber
Since the passage of the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act, federal CFOs have played increasingly complex roles, compelling fresh discussions about where these officials fit in agencies' management structures, witnesses told lawmakers last week.
Over the past 14 years, the government's CFOs have taken on management responsibilities outside of those prescribed in the 1990 law, witnesses testified at a hearing of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Efficiency and Financial Management. "The CFO is increasingly recognized as being positioned to provide agencywide leadership that other officials with more limited portfolios cannot offer," Office of Management and Budget Controller Linda Springer testified.
The 1990 CFO Act requires 23 major agencies to let a Senate-confirmed CFO oversee accounting systems, prepare performance and accountability reports and help keep spending in line with the budget. Under the act, the CFO is to report directly to the head of the agency.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091604a1.htm
2. Sweeping Postal Service reform measure advances in House
By Michael Posner, CongressDaily
The first sweeping restructuring of the U.S. postal system in a generation took another step closer to approval in the House last week.
The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation (H.R. 4341) on a voice vote. That committee was sent the legislation for review of legal aspects by the House Government Reform Committee that gave the bill its basic approval on May 12.
Similar legislation (S. 2468) is pending on the Senate calendar for floor action.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091604markup1.htm
3. Senate appropriators question funding for Patent Office overhaul
By Sarah Lai Stirland, National Journal's Technology Daily
Senate appropriators have expressed skepticism over requests from the Patent and Trademark Office for more money to overhaul itself. Key senators in the debate, meanwhile, continue to urge members of the Appropriations Committee to craft language that would end the diversion of fees generated by PTO services.
In a committee report on the annual spending measure that funds PTO and other entities, Senate appropriators said the agency needs more funding to execute its five-year overhaul plan.
But the committee added that it still questions whether PTO's "past failure to attain these objectives was the result of inadequate funding" and whether the agency needs to hire "hundreds, if not thousands, of additional personnel" to achieve its objectives.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/092004td1.htm
4. Policy leaders offer advice for tackling security clearance backlog
By Chris Strohm
Public policy experts offered Congress last week recommendations for tackling the government's security clearance backlog, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal and contract employees in limbo for months, and in some cases years.
Officials told the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management that a single database of clearance information is needed, and a security clearance granted by one agency should be accepted at all other agencies.
Congress is considering overhauling security clearance procedures in response to proposals made by the 9/11 commission. The commission said a single federal agency should be responsible for providing and maintaining security clearances and for ensuring uniform clearance standards, including maintaining a single database of clearance information.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091404c1.htm
5. CIA refuses to release historical budget data
By Chris Strohm
The acting director of Central Intelligence told a federal court last week that he will not release historical budget information for the intelligence community and, in some cases, does not have past budget data for individual agencies.
The Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of the total U.S. intelligence budget from 1947 to 1970, as well as budget totals for subsidiary agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency. John McLaughlin, who serves as acting director of both Central Intelligence and the CIA, told a federal court last week that releasing such information might damage U.S. national security by giving adversaries sensitive information about sources and methods.
"I have carefully considered the ramifications of releasing the total CIA budgets for fiscal years 1947 to 1970 and a few budget numbers from other agencies for fiscal year 1947," McLaughlin wrote in a letter to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "I have concluded that publicly disclosing the intelligence budget information that [the] plaintiff seeks would tend to reveal intelligence methods that, in the interest of maintaining an effective intelligence service, ought not be publicly revealed."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/091704c1.htm
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6. GSA upgrades purchasing Web site
By Daniel Pulliam
The General Services Administration introduced new features aimed at streamlining the federal government's purchasing system.
Agency officials anticipate saving time, money and improved compliance with "procurement sourcing and best-value purchase decisions," by improving searching capabilities for GSA Advantage and by redesigning the e-Buy Web site.
The upgraded system now allows agencies to search the Web site by category. Its design has been simplified, allowing easier access to more popular features such as the search function, order status and quick ordering. A password and zip codes are not required to search the system.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091704dp1.htm
7. Officials closely watching AID electronic finance system
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily
Government officials are carefully watching the implementation of a worldwide, electronic financial-management system at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and agency officials say the effort is on track to meet its deadline for completion next year.
The effort to provide an immediate, integrated accounting system for AID missions worldwide is being funded on a multi-year basis. In the report for the bill to fund foreign operations in fiscal 2005, the House Appropriations Committee said it "remains intensely interested" in the rollout of the system, known as Phoenix.
The House bill, H.R. 4818, would provide $13.3 million for the program next year, while the Senate draft measure approved last week is silent on the project.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091604tdpm2.htm
8. Lax oversight at national labs led to purchase cards abuse, GAO says
By Daniel Pulliam
Purchase card programs at four government-owned, contractor-operated nuclear laboratories were abused in the last three years because the labs' internal control systems allowed for improper purchases, including a $1,559 reclining leather chair for a worker with back problems that could have been purchased for $599.
Two National Nuclear Security Administration labs and two Energy Department contractor labs are cited in separate reports by the Government Accountability Office in response to the FBI's 2002 investigation into two Los Alamos National Laboratory workers accused of misusing lab-issued purchase cards, as well as other allegations of theft and misuse of government funds.
GAO auditors discovered that weaknesses in the purchase card programs led to $326,396 in "improper, wasteful and questionable purchases" at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., $97,348 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., $104,250 at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. and $479,645 at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. While these amounts are from samples and are relatively small in the labs' multimillion-dollar purchase card budgets, the watchdog agency said "it demonstrates vulnerabilities from weak controls that could be exploited to a greater extent."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091404dp1.htm
9. Temporary funding measure still a possibility
By Peter Cohn, CongressDailyPM
The lagging fiscal 2005 appropriations process is renewing speculation that a continuing resolution might be used to fund many agencies and programs through early next year, perhaps as late as March, aides in both chambers said.
That prospect gained purchase last week after House GOP leaders voiced a renewed interest in avoiding a lame duck session. But House and Senate Republican aides said GOP leaders want to avoid that scenario, and that talk of a long-term continuing resolution might just be a trial balloon to spur action—particularly in the Senate, which as passed only two of 13 spending bills. There even has been talk of a CR that would cover the rest of the fiscal year, although one House Republican leadership aide said last week that prospect is unlikely.
"If it had 218 votes, sure," the aide said. "Right now, it gets about 20 or 30 votes."
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091604cdpm1.htm
10. IT groups back temporary patent office user fee boost
By Molly M. Peterson, CongressDaily
The information technology industry is urging Senate appropriators to support a likely provision in the fiscal 2005 Commerce-Justice-State spending bill that would increase Patent and Trademark Office user fees for one year and prevent any of those fees from being earmarked for other federal programs.
"We feel the movement they've made is incremental, but it's a good step in the right direction," Ralph Hellmann, the Information Technology Industry Council's senior vice president of government relations, said last week of the PTO appropriations language. Hellmann said Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is expected to include that language as part of the base text of the spending bill.
The Appropriations Committee was scheduled to mark up the Commerce-Justice-State bill last week. Aides to Gregg and the Appropriations Committee did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091404cdam1.htm
11. Congress, White House urged to streamline national security appointments
By Amy Klamper, CongressDaily
Congress and the executive branch must reduce the number of politically appointed national security jobs or face increased vulnerability to terrorist threats, a panel of government officials and outside experts told a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee last week.
Fred Fielding and Jamie Gorelick, both members of the 9/11 Commission, said the panel's recommendations call for presidential candidates to choose a national security team before an election, and that presidents-elect should submit the names of those appointees to the FBI so security clearances can be obtained immediately.
"We would like to make it appear to be irresponsible not to begin thinking about the next steps even when the election is pending," Gorelick told the Governmental Affairs Government Management Subcommittee.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091404cdpm1.htm
12. This week's column: Outlook
Trivial Pursuit
The quixotic effort to give managers more leeway to make minor workplace decisions.
Full column: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/092004ol.htm
13. Quote of the Week:
"As commander in chief, I will have two words for companies that cheat the U.S. military: 'You're fired.'"
— Democratic presidential contender John Kerry in a new campaign ad.
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