A Debt Deal Done? Plus the Seven Gov Stories You Need To Know

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• Innovation is one of those Rorschach terms, where innovation means different things to different people. Even amongst Chief Innovation Officers the role of innovation at an agency can vary greatly. So what really makes an innovative program? Pamela Wright is the first ever Chief Innovation Officer at NARA. We uncover her secrets to success.

You can find all of our programs online: DorobekINSIDER.com and GovLoop Insights at http://insights.govloop.com.

But up front: A debt deal done?

The Washington Post says that House Republican leaders told members that it is clear the effort to link an increase in the debt ceiling to restoration of military pension benefits will not attract enough support, so they will be bringing up a ‘clean’ debt limit bill for a vote Wednesday, according to several people who were inside their Tuesday morning huddle.

Boehner made clear the GOP would provide the requisite number of Republican votes for the measure but that Democrats will be expected to carry the vote.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. Washington Post: Report says local police agencies stymie security checks – “Law enforcement agencies in more than 450 jurisdictions, including D.C. police, do not cooperate with investigators conducting security-clearance probes for federal ­employees, according to a congressional report to be released Tuesday.”
2. Federal Times: CBP unmanned aircraft flying again – “The the agency grounded the planes in the wake of a crash late last month, and lifted it Feb. 7. The investigation initially found that the plane — a maritime variant of the Predator B — suffered a generator failure and that the remote flight crew properly followed procedures, spokesman Michael Friel said in a statement.”
3. FCW: Watchdog groups push Senate, White House on Data Act – “A coalition of 18 non-profit government oversight groups and other interested associations are pushing the Senate to pass the Data Accountability and Transparency Act, known as the Data Act, a bill designed to create a system for tracking federal spending at a level of detail not currently available.”
4. Federal News Radio: Navy’s legacy NMCI network to get another contract extension – “Navy officials believe they will have to once again delay the full implementation of their new Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) and rely on the legacy Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) for at least an additional few months.”
5. Federal News Radio: OPM cancels $2B training RFP 15 months into the acquisition process – ”The Office of Personnel Management canceled the solicitation for its $2 billion Customized Human Resources Solutions Services initiative 15 months after accepting bids from vendors.”
6. AP: USAID says new farm law to boost food aid abroad – “U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah says changes to the way the United States distributes food aid could help feed 800,000 more people abroad, many of them Syrian refugees.”
7. Governing: Forget Technology; Denver Turns to Its Employees to Fix Problems – “In Denver city government, this is what an innovator looks like: White-haired, dressed in light blue scrubs and wearing a pair of sneakers, Tara Morse works as an animal care supervisor. Each day, she conducts about a dozen examinations of new dogs and cats that arrive at the Denver Animal Shelter. Not long ago, Morse came up with a simple idea to save her agency about $75,000 a year.”

Before we finish up… a few items from the DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too…

• Harvard’s Steve Kelman in FCW: Listening to some of the smartest government procurement people around: We spent most of the last meeting discussing “what is hot” and “what should be keeping you awake at night.” Here’s a report on some of what came out of the discussion: We spoke a fair bit about the idea of transferring more big IT acquisition projects to a few “centers of excellence.” Generally, the sentiment in the room was for caution about this idea. While this might be a good plan for small agencies who do only very occasional IT projects, the group worried that the more “centers of excellence” loomed as a central location for IT procurements, the more a vicious circle would be created. Agencies would have an even harder time attracting and retaining talent, with all IT talent being siphoned off to these (probably higher-graded) positions. The centers of excellence would lack agency-specific knowledge, and relationships inside the agency, that are so important for successful project management. With inside-the-agency talent drained away, this could make successful IT project management more difficult, not less.
• NYPD Confirms Testing of Google Glass– The department obtained two pairs of Google Glass in December and has been “evaluating these devices in an attempt to determine any possible useful applications.”
• Politico: Drew F. Cohen, former law clerk to the chief justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa: It Costs the Government Just 6.5 Cents an Hour to Spy on You: By now, most Americans agree that the NSA surveillance program went “too far.” But what Greenwald and many other analysts often miss is that an overzealous security apparatus is not the driving reason behind government overreach. A lot of it has to do with dollars and cents.