defense

Michael J. Keegan

$500M IT modernization bill passes House. The Modernizing Government Technology Act passed the House of Representatives on a voice vote, but the Senate outlook is less certain.

The current White House leaders of these offices have also inherited a capacity first created in the prior Administration that can turn the good ideas of these two offices in to action – the U.S.

 As noted in yesterday’s blog on Defense contracting reform, The House Armed Services panel on Defense acquisition reform offered a series of recommendations in five areas in

With little fanfare, the While House announced that 29 agencies launched their Open Government weblinks on schedule (per an OMB directive), on Saturday, February 6^th. Virtually all of them also invited citizens to participate in a dialogue on how they could improve their approaches to transparency, participation, collaboration, and innovation.

Profile of Vice Admiral Alan Thompson, Director, Defense Logistics Agency

Guest Blogger: Townley Cozad, Associate Partner, Defense & Intelligence, IBM

Even as the United States remains the strongest, most capable military in the world, U.S. leadership in all domains is being challenged by “near-peer” competitors aggressively seeking to close the capability gap.  The military calls this “near-peer” (against someone who has similar weapons and abilities) warfare.

Clock Is Ticking. In an op-ed for Government Executive, Stan Soloway writes: “While better government management was a major theme of the Trump campaign, a real management agenda—one that is cogent, coordinated, leadership-driven, and focused on improving institutional and mission performance—is not yet in evidence. I’ve been in and around government for more than three decades, across five administrations.

If a tree falls in a forest, did it make a sound?

The November 15^th release of federal department and agency annual performance and accountability reports went largely un-noticed. Not a mention in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal or Washington Post (even its Federal Page).

A series of presentations at the annual conference of the National Academy of Public Administration focused on the complicated management challenges all levels of government will be facing upon the passage of any health care reform legislation. As one participant noted: “There’s too much of a view that programs are self-executing and you just need more inspectors general and audits. . . that happened with the Recovery Act.” The consensus seemed to be that this assumption clearly won't work for health care reform!

Recovery Act guidance from OMB requires agencies to identify the risk associated with each program and develop a plan of action to reduce such risks. After all, if a program gets 3,100 % increase in funding, like the home weatherization program did, there must be some risk involved!