The Office of Management and Budget is using the new online portal Performance.gov to track quarterly federal agencies’ progress on a number of goals. But the site, which is currently open to federal employees, is having a slow- go on its aim of becoming available to the general public sometime this fall. OMB’s Associate Director [...]

The Federal Communications Commission’s newest initiative doesn’t involve making phone calls clearer; it’s about making phone bills themselves easier to understand. FCC voted Thursday to move forward on its proposal to limit “bill shock,” a term for surprising, often hidden, or unknown charges customers discover on their monthly phone bills, The Washington Post reports. The [...]

When the Recovery Act began pumping money into the battered economy in 2009, the Office of Management and Budget placed strict reporting guidelines on recipients of the federal cash. Now, OMB Interim Director Jeffrey Zients, who is also the federal chief performance officer, said nearly all organizations that have received federal funds are making the [...]

The Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security have developed a new cybersecurity framework to better coordinate cybersecurity policies for the federal government. The agreement, released in a memo yesterday, lays out broad guidelines for collaboration and cooperation between the two agencies in the area of cybersecurity, including personnel, equipment and facilities. With the [...]

President Barack Obama signed a $54.8 billion NASA reauthorization bill Oct. 11, but the rest of the funding for the agency has yet to come through. And Aviation Week reports there may be difficulty in mustering the votes for the additional funding, as the recently signed bill was already seen as a compromise between advocates [...]

Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Lynn spoke recently about the bitter reality faced by the Defense Department and government contractors in the incongruous era of budget deficits and spending cuts, according to an article in Aviation Week. The Defense Department says it needs between 2 and 3 percent growth, but Lynn said it is [...]

It’s a story that stretches from the battlefield to the drawing board. A team at Fort Belvoir, Va., won a coveted GreenGov Presidential Award for its plans to develop a sustainable, green community at Fort Belvoir. The Army’s Residential Communities Initiative plans for a 50-year public-private partnership to build more than 2,000 green homes on [...]

President Barack Obama met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and recently appointed Transportation Security Authority for an update on aviation security, according to a report in The Global Times. Official briefed Obama on DHS strategic plans for air safety, as well mass-transit transportation such as rail systems. The meeting was part of [...]

While Obama administration officials have painted a picture of crisis in implementing broadband technology, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, the United States is on track with other developed nations. And the biggest stumbling block to wider deployment, The Hill reports, is cost, not availability of access. According to the report, 95 percent [...]

Speaking before a Telework Exchange Town Hall last week, head of the Office of Personnel Management John Berry again voiced his support for teleworking for federal employees, Nextgov reports. Employers should take broad steps to open up the teleworking option for most federal employees. Managers “should begin with the presumption that all employees are eligible [...]