Digital Government
Advocates worry White House changes could hurt transparency
The White House's weak rating system for holding agencies' accountable indicates the administration must work to improve enforcement of open government, watchdog groups say.
Digital Government
Feds meet to find ways to fix federal IT development
The Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council wants agencies to focus on project results, not reporting and compliance.
Ideas
Reshuffling May Impair OGov
A rearrangement of staff within the White House may dilute the already weak enforcement of the president's open government directive, the Washington nonprofit Sunlight Foundation contends.
Digital Government
E-recycling program might not be achieving its full potential
EPA initiatives to promote environmentally sound disposal of electronics have a limited reach and not enough is being done to improve them, auditors find.
Digital Government
SSA's modernization plan risks future Web services
Just as the agency begins to process large numbers of retiring baby boomers, an independent panel tells officials that its upgrade could make it impossible to use modern Internet technologies.
Digital Government
House leaders raise financial reporting proposal again
Lawmakers back a bill nearly identical to a regulatory provision that Senate negotiators puzzlingly scrapped during last-minute talks on the reform law.
Ideas
Privacy Advocate Schwartz Joins NIST
Ari Schwartz, a longtime advocate for protecting privacy in the age of Web-based government, is leaving his post at the Center for Democracy and Technology to press for change from within the administration at the National Institute for Standards and Technology.
Digital Government
Agencies rush to replace aging satellite to predict damaging solar storms
The sun's activity, forecasted to peak in 2013, could knock out the backbone operating power lines, GPS and financial transactions.
Modernization
Senate funds Web services sites, but cuts cloud computing budget
Congress is uneasy with the amount of thought the administration has put in to consolidating data centers governmentwide.
Ideas
Compu-Forensics Saves Stim & Devaney
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a hearing the other day criticized the head of the board overseeing stimulus spending for being unable to cite an instance where the board's analytical software prevented fraud and abuse.
Digital Government
Medicare providers urged to enroll in online system to fight fraud
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says its application will be used to reduce $43 billion in improper payments, but physicians contend the changes have made it difficult to enroll.
Digital Government
Inspector: Standard coding for contract awards will help fight fraud
Agencies now use different alphanumerical schema to track their awards, making it 'unnecessarily arduous' to identify $110 billion in improper payments the government makes every year.
Digital Government
New law requires OMB to post information on contractors
The database is expected to document criminal and civil proceedings, terminated contracts, vendors banned from doing business with the government.
Cybersecurity
U.S. doesn't have leadership, strategy to protect cyberspace globally
Without high-level direction, federal agencies might not coordinate international cybersecurity positions as envisioned in the president's cyber policy review, GAO reports.
Digital Government
EPA posts toxic data early to encourage crowdsourcing
Officials said they published the reports so communities, public interest groups and facilities can identify errors, and use the information to make decisions.
Digital Government
Publisher argues free access to research violates administration's transparency initiative
Fewer peer-reviewed science articles and canceled journal subscriptions are concerns.
Ideas
Repubs Knock Apparent FOIA Exemption
Some Republicans are disgruntled about a clause in the newly-minted financial reform law that they say allows the Securities and Exchange Commission to sidestep the Freedom of Information Act.
Digital Government
Agencies begin to identify failing IT projects for high-risk list
OMB says if flagged programs aren't turned around, they could be cut from next budget cycle.
Digital Government