Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry recently delivered a lecture on the value of “Public Service in the 21st Century,” in Princeton University’s Robertson Hall. He talked about about how individuals working for the federal government can have a large-scale impact. He used himself as an example of how one person can make a [...]

The Small Business Administration is considering allowing agencies to get credit toward their annual small-business subcontracting goals for orders placed against multiple-agency contracts, the agency said last week. In a Federal Register notice Oct. 5, the SBA said rule changes would include allowing an agency spending its money through a task or delivery order to [...]

The House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation Thursday by voice vote to repeal a requirement that the Internal Revenue Service withhold 3 percent of all government contracts. Currently, when a company is awarded a $1 billion contract, the government withholds $30 million until the company files its next tax return. “Repealing the 3 percent [...]

The financially-strapped Postal Service claims it overpaid into a federal retirement program and is owed a $75 billion refund, which it says would help solidify its financial position. However, a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office says a refund would not solve any of the Postal Service’s long-term financial problems. In fact, GAO [...]

NASA announced it is planning to launch the very first Earth-observing satellite on Oct. 27. The ultimate goal for the satellite entitled The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) will be to collect critical data on short and long-term weather patterns and increase our knowledge of climate change. New state-of-the-art sensors will [...]

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey’s job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will primarily focus on transitions regarding both people and budgets, he said Wednesday according to AFPS. Dempsey told attendees at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting that the decline of combat levels, troops leaving the military, and veterans’ issues regarding [...]

Eric Perakslis, former chief information officer of R&D information technology at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, has joined the Food and Drug Administration as its new chief information officer and chief scientist of informatics. In a brief statement to Bio-IT World, Perakslis said, “The commissioner has given me license to bring positive change to the [...]

Although the U.S. has made steps to better prepare for small-scale bioterror events, it is still unprepared to protect citizens against large attacks, according to an assessment from a bipartisan commission established to advise Congress. The report found that although the nation gets a satisfactory ”C” for detecting a small-scale noncontagious or contagious event, a large-scale [...]

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert is the chief of naval operations, having assumed the post Sept. 23. Greenert is the senior military officer in the Department of the Navy. He is responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources, and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of [...]

A House lawmaker has urged the joint committee on deficit reduction to put an end to early federal retirements in order to save money. “There are many thousands of federal employees who are retiring in their 50s and even in their late 40s,” said Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) in a letter last week to [...]