“I commend GAO for their work on the GPRA 10-year retrospective and am pleased that agencies are improving the quality of their annual plans and reports. I believe that GRPA is a vital tool that has benefits far beyond linking agency budgets with performance information. Agencies and managers can improve the success of GPRA by linking their annual plans and reports directly with employee work plans,” said Senator Voinovich.
In fact, since March 2001, when the 2001 recession began, more than 2.3 million payroll jobs have been lost, according to the Labor Department, making this recession/recovery period the most "jobless" since World War II.
However, significant challenges remain. The report, requested by Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman (D-CT), along with Subcommittee Chairmen George Voinovich (R-OH) and Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), and Subcommittee Ranking Members Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Richard Durbin (D-IL), was made public today.
Last year, Senator Collins introduced the Homeland Security Grant Enhancement Act (S. 1245), which would authorize a program to provide billions of dollars in assistance to state and local governments and first responders. The bill would give first responders and local officials a greater voice in determining how federal homeland dollars will be spent.
“Maine will be represented on the Task Force by the mayor of its largest city, Portland,” Senator Collins continued. “Portland, home to New England’s second largest seaport, an international jetport that annually processes 1.2 million passengers, and a turnpike utilized by 15,000-25,000 vehicles each day, understands the challenges of homeland security.”
