For years now, the beleaguered federal workforce has paid too high a price for the political ineptitude of Congress. Hard working and loyal public servants should never be used as political pawns in an ideological chess match. Feds are not sacrificial lambs that lawmakers can conveniently use to cover up their own conspicuous failure toRead… Read more »
Continuing to provide adequate services in the face of unprecedented across-the-board cuts; a declining, dispirited workforce; and growing financial and other management requirements is the top concern of Federal Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), according to the 18th annual federal CFO Survey conducted by the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) in partnership with Grant Thornton LLP.Read… Read more »
The General Services Administration could reduce the scope of or terminate some existing contracts with the Public Building Service as a result of the government shutdown. Jennifer Smith, PBS acting deputy assistant commissioner for acquisition management, told industry partners in an Oct. 2 letter the lack of a fiscal year 2014 budget has caused aRead… Read more »
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union has asked Congress to set aside partisanship and end the deadlock on the federal budget, warning that the country’s aviation system is at risk the longer the resulting work stoppage continues. The shutdown Tuesday has seen 15,000 sidelined employees from the Federal Aviation Administration, more than 4,000 of whichRead… Read more »
by Steve Charles, Co-founder and Executive Vice President With the Washington Nationals now eliminated for sure from this season’s baseball playoffs, Washington the city and the market can focus fully on handicapping the possibility of a government shutdown next week. Just in case, the White House issued a memo this month on agency operations duringRead… Read more »
Here We Go Again. News reports have been chattering about a possible government shutdown since July. Both Democrats and Republicans have been posturing and saber-rattling and making a lot of noise, but none of them bother to explain what that means for the public. First, some background. Each federal fiscal, or budget, year begins onRead… Read more »
The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are seeking ideas for new approaches to developing spaceborne technology intended to provide both agencies continuous data on the Earth’s landscape for at least two more decades. NASA will officially launch the sustainable land imaging architecture study at a public forum Wednesday at the agency’s Webb Auditorium in Washington,NASARead… Read more »
A recent article in the Atlantic commented, “Young people are eager to serve and to change the world. They just have no faith that public service or elected office are the way to get it done.” That’s a pretty staggering statement, and a not-so-good prediction for the future of the government workforce. We wanted toRead… Read more »
August in Washington always reminds me of the proverbial calm before the storm. That is, the storm of political acrimony and legislative gridlock as the fiscal year draws to an end and appropriations bills pile up in Congress. But this year the stakes are much higher as some members of Congress are actively threatening aRead… Read more »
From the fiscal cliff to the current sequester, government agencies are operating in a period of fiscal uncertainly. At best agencies will have flat year-on-year budgets, barely keeping up with the rate of inflation. At worst agencies will face deep budget cuts. While many agencies are already reducing waste, cutting back on training, and increasingRead… Read more »