Senate Won’t Investigate IRS – Plus the DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• A couple of years ago it seemed you couldn’t talk about government without thinking about dashboards. They were everywhere. But then the fad started to fade. But now with the emergence of big data and data analytics, dashboards are making a resurgence.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. Sen. Max Baucus says the Senate Finance Committee will investigate the IRS for targeting conservative political groups, Federal News Radio reports. The Finance Committee will join the House Ways and Means Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in investigating. On Friday, the IRS apologized for scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of groups with conservative ties.

2. In the fiscal second quarter of 2013 the U.S. Postal Service reports losing $1.9 billion. The increased revenue and savings from efficiency efforts weren’t enough to prevent the losses which followed a $1.3 billion first-quarter loss. The Washington Post is reporting that the Postal Service’s second-quarter revenue from package delivery rose by $267 million compared to last year and advertising mail revenue was up $96 million.

3. The Defense Department is likely to cut the number of civilian furlough days from 14 to 11, and will probably add exceptions for certain classes of workers, according to an Associated Press report. Doing so will allow the military to exempt thousands of additional workers from the unpaid day off requirements. Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to announce a decision as early as today when he speaks to Defense Department civilians in Virginia.

4. The DoD could trim $1 trillion without eroding combat power says Defense News. The Washington-based Stimson Center projects the Defense Department could trip its planned spending over the next 10 years by making a list of accounting, personnel and contracting changes.

5. Jenny Yang has been sworn in as the new commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Yang was nominated by President Obama in August 2012 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on April 25, 2013. The EEOC now returns to its full complement of five commissioners.

6. Commerce Department general counsel Cameron Kerry, brother of Secretary of State John Kerry, has been named acting secretary of Commerce when the outgoing acting secretary, Rebecca Blank, leaves at the end of this month the Washington Post reports. This is possibly the first time ever that two brothers serviced in the same Cabinet at the same time.
   

7. And on GovLoop, register now for the DorobekINSIDER Live program on Digital Government Strategy – One Year Later. The live online webinar is on Wednesday at noon ET.

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