Senate supports penalties for illegal hiring

Companies found hiring illegal workers would be blocked from getting government contracts, according to a provision in a minimum wage bill approved by the Senate Jan. 25.

An amendment with that provision in the Senate’s version of the Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 2) passed by 94-0.

Under the amendment, contractors with illegal hiring practices would be banned from getting a new government contract for up to 10 years, depending on whether they currently had a contract with the government.

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Building the IT workforce is a priority for CIO council

The Chief Information Officers Council has issued its strategies for advancing information technology and e-government through fiscal 2009, including efforts to build up the IT workforce.

The council’s broad strategic plan, issued Jan. 24, pushes President Bush’s goals of applying IT governmentwide before the administration ends. The council intends to focus on the federal infrastructure, the line of business initiatives, secure information and the IT workforce’s capabilities.

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Bush: IT will help health care

President Bush, in his Jan. 23 State of the Union address, said better information technology can make health care more affordable and reduce medial errors.

Bush challenged Congress to use IT to improve insurance nationwide and to save small businesses money through association health plans and reforming medical liability lawsuits.

He proposed two new initiatives on affordable health care: a standard tax deduction for health insurance and federal funding to help states using innovative health care programs.

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Doan 'elated' by SEWP decision

Reversing her previous stance, Lurita Doan, administrator of the General Services Administration, said today she was elated by the decision to allow NASA’s acquisition contract to continue.

In December, Paul Denett, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, granted NASA an extension to its Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement governmentwide acquisition contract. Originally opposed to it, Doan said she now considers his verdict a justified response to meeting a niche need in the federal marketplace.

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COMING UP IN THIS CONGRESS: Rep. Towns: Restructuring could fix some agencies' operations

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), new chairman of a House oversight subcommittee, today said the federal government may need to restructure some agencies so they run more efficiently.

The government struggles to run smoothly, with its disjointed programs and stovepipe systems, said Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement.

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COMING UP IN THIS CONGRESS: Subcommittee will examine information privacy, security

With privacy concerns heightened after incidents of stolen laptop computers and information breaches in 2006, the newly appointed chairman of the House information policy subcommittee plans to delve into the problems surrounding technology and privacy.

Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee, whose jurisdiction covers public information and records laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act; the Census Bureau; and the National Archives and Records Administration.

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Oversight committee names subcommittees' rosters

After its organizational meeting today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), announced its subcommittee rosters for this Congress.

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Davis asks GAO to review SARA panel report

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) asked the Government Accountability Office to assess whether the Acquisition Advisory Panel's reommendations to improve federal acquisition regulations will help the system, protect the government’s best interest and ensure the financial and ethical integrity of the government’s acquisitions, according to a letter sent in November.

The Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003, which created the panel, was passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. It directed the administrator for federal procurement policy to establish an advisory panel to review acquisition laws and regulations.

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GSA accepts Express Schedule offers

The General Services Administration is acting on one of Administrator Lurita Doan’s earliest promises: awarding a basic GSA Schedule contract within 30 days.

GSA said today it will immediately accept offers under the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Express test program. The program’s primary goal is to simplify and streamline the process for awarding MAS contracts.

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Free File opens for early birds

Free File, a tax-filing program, opened today for taxpayers wanting to get an early start on filing season.

The controversial program, in its fifth year, is a free tax preparation and electronic filing initiative between the Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance, which is composed of 20 private-sector tax preparation companies.

Congress and the IRS’ inspector general have criticized the program for excluding taxpayers who once used the program by setting stricter income requirements. Those requirements caused a double-digit percentage drop in usage in 2006.

But the IRS and the alliance have made Free File more consumer-friendly this year, according to the IRS.

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Performance-based acquisitions down in fiscal 2006

The government slipped slightly last year in making performance-based purchases, according to fiscal 2006 federal procurement figures.

Departments slid to 49 percent, down from 50.9 percent in fiscal 2005, the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation found.

The decline amounts to a $5.6 billion difference from fiscal 2005. The government used $72.3 billion of eligible dollars in fiscal 2006, compared with $77.9 billion in 2005, according to the data, which is updated through Dec. 12, 2006.

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Seeking more transparency, senators turn to Web

An ethics reform bill may make it easier for citizens to watch Congress from their laptop computers.

Senators considering reforms for more accountability and transparency are advocating use of the Web as a means of opening their work to the public.

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GSA awards contract for e-travel data analysis

The General Services Administration has awarded TRX Data Services a five-year contract to develop systems to help the government make the best use of its E-Gov Travel Service program.

The contract has a one-year, $9 million base with four one-year options, according to a notice published on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.

Under the contract, TRX will create tools for consolidating and analyzing travel data, so that government officials get a better understanding of the money being spent on airfare, car rentals, lodging and similar expenses.

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Bill proposes database on slave records

A bill introduced Jan. 10 would set up a national online database to aid black Americans’ search for information on their ancestors.

The Preservation of Records of Servitude, Emancipation and Post-Civil War Reconstruction Act (H.R. 390) would establish an electronic database in the National Archives to house records from the Southern Claims Commission, the Freedman’s Bank, slave payrolls and slave manifests.

Many federal agencies already have these records, which will be used to form the database.

The bill also would give grants to state and local entities to build similar catalogs. It proposes $5 million to build the database and another $5 million for grants.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) introduced the legislation.

The bill has been sent to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for consideration.

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Democrats put spotlight on data mining

As expected, Democrats are delving into the Bush administration’s programs and peeling back the covers.

On Jan. 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s first hearing of the new Congress looked at the executive branch’s use of data-mining programs. In his opening statement, committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) vowed more investigations into the administration’s privacy initiatives.

Leahy said the government has dramatically increased its collection and monitoring of sensitive personal data from the public.

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Experts nitpick SARA panel proposals

The draft report of the Acquisition Advisory Panel, released in December, is drawing mixed reviews from the federal contracting community.

No one knows yet whether the recommendations will produce procurement changes. The panel — created by the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 and often called the SARA panel — will release a final version of the report by Jan. 20.

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Business owners can get tax help online

Officials are urging taxpayers and business owners to go online to make tax preparation easier.

This month, business owners are preparing W-2 forms and doing other tax-related tasks, and the Small Business Administration is touting its Web site, Business.gov, as a means to get the job done with fewer headaches.

Business.gov provides federal form searches so visitors can quickly find and download federal tax forms and guides

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IRS, IG disagree on process vs. independent judgment

The Internal Revenue Service and its inspector general are divided on whether to define a process or use managers’ judgment to analyze the effects of project delays.

IRS officials objected to the IG’s recommendation to establish a process to determine the effects of deferred work on funding and for marking incomplete work to avoid paying for it again, according to a December 2006 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report on the Modernization e-File project.

Officials consider the process a waste of resources.

But, the IG wrote, such a process should help prevent the agency from paying for the same work.

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IRS uses Web to make up for lost time

The Internal Revenue Service is pushing taxpayers to the Web for the latest filing information after the 109th Congress passed last-minute legislation that delayed the IRS’ ability to distribute paper instructions for the tax filing season.

The previous Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act the day before it adjourned. The bill renews and extends tax cuts, including the college tuition deduction and the research and development tax credit.

But the information is not on the IRS documents already at the printer.

“Unless taxpayers are willing to get on the Internet and search, they may never know that we extended these [tax] incentives in the nick of time,” said Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, just before Congress adjourned last year.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson wrote in a Dec. 5, 2006, letter to Baucus that the individual tax form, Form 1040, was already being printed. Tax legislation passed after Oct. 31 risks hindering the IRS’ ability to meet tax filing season needs, such as distributing up-to-date information and on-time returns. He estimated that updating the forms would cost more than $2 million.

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SARA panel: Feds need tutorial on performance-based deals

Federal agencies will never make the long-awaited transition to performance-based acquisitions unless they first learn how to measure performance.

That was the conclusion of the Acquisition Advisory Panel, whose draft report strongly urges agencies to shift from time-and-material contracts, which are based on fixed hourly rates, to performance-based contracts, in which vendors are paid for meeting specific metrics.

But that requires program managers to think differently, according to the panel. They must define performance measures and results rather than specific activities and processes.

Too often federal program managers begin with the right intention only to fall back into their old habit of dictating how the work should be done, the report states.

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