FAS Commissioner Steve Kempf on the value of a centralized provider as GSA: Challenges facing GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service

On Monday, June 13, in a 4-minuteYouTube message to the American people, the President sat next to a stack of Federal Registers to highlight the steps he taking to take to get rid of “pointless waste, stupid spending.”  

The use of prizes and awards is a visible element of the Obama Administration’s efforts to promote innovation in government. For example, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sponsored a competition among federal employees to find cost savings and the White House has created the “challenge.gov” website where federal agencies can pose problems in hopes of getting solutions from the public.  OMB issued guidance to encourage agencies to offer challenges and prizes, as well.  

Earlier this month, President Obama signed the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 into law.  It expands opportunities for over 1 million federal workers to telecommute for at least part of their week.  The law advances multiple goals simultaneously.  It advances the greening of government.  It allows federal wo

While the financial management community has made significant progress over the years, it continues to face challenges in meeting some of the basic standards for accounting and reporting. Many agencies currently use outdated financial systems that do not support their efforts to improve financial performance and accountability. Efforts made to improve financial systems through upgrades or replacement of current financial systems must be undertaken with planning and care.

The Obama administration’s Open Government initiative places a strong emphasis on increasing collaboration— among agencies as well as with citizens and other stakeholders— to achieve more effective program and mission results. Agencies have developed their required Open Government Plans, but many of these plans lack details on how to successfully conduct collaborative efforts, especially on the front lines of government.

The federal government, led by the Obama administration, state and local governments, nonprofits, and leading private sector companies all seek ways to harness the advantages of innovation. The challenges faced by government in this environment are not new—business and technology managers have long sought to optimize how information technology (IT) supports their mission at reduced overall cost. Today, however, radical advances in computing power offer an unprecedented opportunity to reshape information and service delivery for citizens, while also streamlining program operations.

Good blogs share ideas.  Better blogs share ideas and generate dialog.  In this spirit, we’ve asked Tom Temin to join us as a guest blogger and contirbute his views around some of the hottest topics in Federal IT today: centralized provisioning of services, cloud, and data center consolidation.  Tom will be joining us for the next few weeks as we dig in and discuss: 1) action items to reduce costs and improve performance, 2) how to implement these action items, and

As the mid-term elections near, the debate over the size of government seems to be a hot button issue.  Interestingly, the debate seems to have taken an unexpected turn. Two recent polls show a significant decrease in voters’ confidence in federal employees.  According to a Politico-George Washington University-Battleground poll, confidence slipped from 75 percent in July 2009 to 66 percent in September 2010.

The Guide: Helping the New AdministrationSucceed in Washington