Posts By Samuel Lovett

A Paycheck Deferred

Stephen Lurie raises a provocative question about a high profile government internship program in his recent Washington Post opinion piece. With all the emphasis President Obama has given to a fair minimum wage, wage equality, and access to overtime pay, is it a bit surprising that a group of workers very close to the presidentRead… Read more »

PMF Finalists Struggle to Secure Placements

Coming up against an April 8, 2014 deadline to get a work placement within an agency, many 2013 Presidential Management Fellow finalists are seeking an extension. More than 250 current finalists have petitioned OPM’s Katherine Archuleta to intervene and provide them with more time or assistance (the petition requests an extra job fair). Government Executive’sRead… Read more »

Congress and the Federal Worker

Federal employees have many concerns on their plate in terms of Congress and the federal budget, including: What will happen with federal pay in 2015 following the 1% increases in 2014? Will Congress pass a debt limit increase? How will the president’s State of the Union promise to use more Executive Orders play out? KenRead… Read more »

It’s Official! The Civic Font

I wrote in 2012 about a group of designers in Chattanooga, TN who were kickstarting a campaign to create the first ever typeface for a U.S. city. The good news announced yesterday in The Atlantic is that the font was successfully released on October 31, 2013. A proclamation signed by Mayor Andy Berke declares thatRead… Read more »

The Innovation Of Public-Private Partnerships

The challenges of the 21st century not only cut across multiple agencies, they also cut across the lines between the public vs. the private sectors. Yet the original design of our government was not intended to collaborate well across multiple organizations. A frustrating dilemma. But that doesn’t mean we can’t rethink and evolve government toRead… Read more »

Jonny Dorsey at NextGen: Five Actions to Advance Government

Jonny Dorsey is a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Global Health Corps, an initiative that brings talented individuals into public health communities around the world. At the opening NextGen general session, he shared five major points from a study done by the Impact Careers Initiative at the Aspen Institute. The study seeks to understand whyRead… Read more »

Congressional Staff May Be Losing Their Health Insurance

Here is a recent post from my co-worker, Mark Harkins, that lays out how law was passed that may cause Members of Congress and their staff to absorb the entire cost of their health insurance on January 1, 2014. This amendment started in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee — which wasRead… Read more »

Sequestration and the Ulysses Solution

I wanted to share this recent post by my colleague Mark Nadel at the Government Affairs Institute who shares an interesting point about government leadership in difficult situations: “when individual desire is about to trump the common good, the decision maker must tie his hands behind his back to avoid disastrous results.” There are aRead… Read more »

Congress BUILDs Support for Local Revitalization

Every city has them, the unusable old buildings and empty lots that remain cut off from the public sphere. They’re former factories or disposal areas where hazardous substances, pollutants, or other contaminant is hanging around for one reason or another. They’re undeveloped, contaminated, usually abandoned, and they’re a thorn in the side of any communityRead… Read more »

Why Don’t Any Big Cities Have Municipal Broadband?

I haven’t written a post in a while, but reading an interesting article in Atlantic Cities today, Why Are There No Big Cities with Municipal Broadband Networks?, I was reminded of some past posts and wanted to take the opportunity to bring some thoughts together. The largest city in the United States with its ownRead… Read more »