Weekly Roundup: January 23-27, 2017

Michael Keegan

Trump's pick for OMB sounds enthusiastic about the Data Act. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) stressed the importance of getting accurate and useful data in order to inform his and President Donald Trump's decision-making during his confirmation hearings to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

The Ten Behaviors of Strong Personal Leadership. Since writing the first edition of The Next Level in 2006, I’ve coached, spoken with, and observed thousands of leaders in action. Many of them have been good leaders. Some have been great leaders. The great ones have one big thing in common. They don’t just lead at their best; they live at their best. They understand that to lead others effectively, they first have to lead themselves effectively.

What GS-15s in contracting really think about government acquisition. Steve Kelman sits down with feds in the Harvard Kennedy School's executive education program.

EPA plans tilt to agile. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to build agility into the acquisition process, move to procure IT services from vendors who specialize in agile and to try to move the culture of the whole agency toward agile methodologies.

Chaffetz: Postal reform bill needed to reform ‘unsustainable’ trajectory.After years of pressuring from the Postal Service and a series of stalled bipartisan bills, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has made postal reform a top priority for this Congress.

McMahon still standing after positive confirmation hearing for SBA role. Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick for Small Business Administration leader, received bipartisan support during her confirmation hearing. McMahon promised to be an advocate for small businesses struggling to work with government agencies.

Telecom transition is looming. It's close to award time for GSA's huge next-generation telecom contract, and the agency has been working hard to set the stage for its implementation

When 'social gov' goes quiet. Are agencies experiencing tweet anxiety?

John Kamensky

Last Act.  NextGov reports: “In one of his last actions as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama . . .  signed a law that codifies the Presidential Innovation Fellows program; fellows, often specializing in technology, usually serve between 6-month and 2-year terms.”

Top 50.  RouteFifty reports that it has “A list of approximately 50 infrastructure projects obtained by The Kansas City Star and the McClatchy newspaper chaindetails the highway, railway, seaport and airport projects that will likely move to the front of the line as emergency and national security priorities.”  It believes these projects will be part of President Trump’s $1 Trillion infrastructure investment plan.

PART Redux.  Government Executive reports that during his confirmation hearing, OMB director nominee Mick Mulvaney “expressed enthusiasm for reviving a George W. Bush-era tool for evaluating the effectiveness of federal programs.”

OMB Hiring Frreeze Guidance.  Following on the heels of President Trump’sannouncement that he is freezing federal hiring for 90 days, Federal News Radio reports confusion within agencies and that OMB issued a memo that “does clarify how agencies should approach positions that they recently filled and whether those recently hired individuals should report for work.”

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 The Business of Government Radio Show: Zvika Krieger, Representative to Silicon Valley and Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation at the U.S. Department of State. How is the US Department of State collaborating with Silicon Valley? What is State doing to be more innovative? How is the Department of State leveraging design thinking to more effectively meet its mission? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Zvika Krieger, Representative to Silicon Valley and Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation at the U.S. Department of State.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED