Thursday, August 1, 2013
Articles from across the Web that we found interesting, the week of July 29, 2013.

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

Dan Chenok

John Kamensky

  • Praised by Both OMB and GAO?  Patience Wait, with InformationWeek, writes that the Department of Education’s approach to inventorying its data collection is a model for the government.  Interestingly, Wait writes:  “The GAO report was prompted by a request from the House Education and the Workforce Committee, responding to complaints from states and school districts that data collection and reporting was burdensome and duplicative.”
  • OMB’s “Moneyball Memo” Is Out.  Charles Clark, with Government Executive, writes:  “The top team at the Office of Management and Budget on Friday directed all agency heads to be sure their fiscal 2015 budget requests include suggestions for strengthening the “use of evidence and innovation.”  Interestingly, the memo was co-signed not only by the director of OMB but also by the White House heads of science policy, economics, and domestic policy.  Sean Reilly, Federal Times, adds that the memo promises a series of workshops this Fall on how to use evidence to make better budget decisions.
  • GAO Inventory of Its GPRA Reports.  GAO has developed a really helpful webpage that inventories 20 years of reports on “Managing for Results in Government.”  It’s worth bookmarking because you really cant’ find it easily via its search engine!
  • Pending Legislation: Customer Service. The House passed the Customer Service Improvement Act of 2013 and sent it to the Senate, reports Adam Mazmanian, with FCW.  This bill would require governmentwide standards of service, and require agency performance improvement officers to set customer service standards within their agencies, and tie them to employee appraisals.  Parallel legislation is pending in the Senate.

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