New standards for background investigations

President Bush has established a new council and two new positions to create governmentwide standards for checking the backgrounds of government employees and contractors.

An executive order issued June 30 established the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council. The council will review procedures for investigating and ruling on whether a person should be allowed access to sensitive information or federally controlled buildings. The goal is to standardize those procedures governmentwide, the order states.

The president also established two new positions: the suitability executive agent and the security executive agent.

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Bush urges agencies to buy from AbilityOne

President Bush wants agencies to buy products and services through a federal program designed to support people with disabilities, according to a memo released Feb. 11.

The AbilityOne program, formerly known as the Javits-Wagner-O’Day program, is a federal initiative that works with public and private organizations to create jobs for people who are blind or have other disabilities.

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Bush signs continuing resolution

President Bush signed a continuing resolution today that Congress passed late Dec. 13. The resolution extends agencies funding until Dec. 21.

“I hope that Congress will use the additional time productively,” Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. He urged lawmakers to pass a clean spending package at his proposed spending levels. He has already issued veto threats on appropriations bills that are higher than his spending proposals. He also said the package should not include language that changes policies, and it should include funding for troops.

“It would be disappointing if members of Congress did not finish their work by the holidays,” Bush said. But if they can’t, he said they should pass a one-year continuing resolution and not carry 2007 business into 2008.

The Senate passed the resolution Dec. 13 by voice vote, and the House passed it 385 to 27. The amended resolution would have expired today.

With the amended resolution, government work will continue until Dec. 21 at fiscal 2007 spending levels.

This is the third continuing resolution already in 2008. Congress and the White House have pushed back and forth over spending bills. Congress has considered an omnibus appropriations bill, and President Bush has threatened to veto any such measure.

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Bush: Provisions in small-biz bill 'constitutionally suspect'

President Bush opposes new legislation that would update contracting programs for small-business contractors because some provisions raise constitutional concerns.

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Appropriations bills in limbo

Departments operating under a continuing resolution in fiscal 2007 will likely continue to do so in fiscal 2008, as a fight between Congress and the White House over spending limits intensifies. The Senate has approved only one appropriations bill, and its Appropriations Committee has not yet approved the Defense Appropriations Bill. The House passed all 12 appropriations bills before the August congressional recess.

Meanwhile, White House officials have issued another veto threat. Officials threatened to veto the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill if it exceeds President Bush’s $933 billion funding request for VA without offsetting cuts elsewhere.

White House officials previously threatened to send other spending bills back to Congress without a signature if they exceeded the president’s spending caps.

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OMB's budget theme continues: Do more with less

The Bush administration will push to improve existing information technology programs, but it has proposed few major new IT investments in its fiscal 2008 budget request.

Industry officials immediately criticized the budget, saying it will force federal contractors to adjust to a spending climate in which agencies must do more with the IT they have. The budget attributes the decrease in new investments to better capital planning and reduced duplication.

President Bush proposed greater spending increases for defense, energy, health IT and information security, which are administration priorities.

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Bush asks for 3 percent increase in IT spending

The Bush administration’s fiscal 2008 budget proposal asks for a 3 percent increase to $65.5 billion in information technology funding as departments set priorities and seek to offer better results from their services, according to the document released today.

The number of major IT investments has decreased 2 percent, from 857 in fiscal 2007 to 840 in fiscal 2008. In fiscal 2006, there were 1,084 major IT investments.

The budget chalks up the decrease to better capital planning and investments aligning with enterprise architectures.

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Evans: IT budget numbers reflect priorities

The fiscal 2008 budget proposal increases total spending on information technology to $65.5 billion, or 2.6 percent over fiscal 2007’s $63.8 billion funding request, said Karen Evans, the Office of Management and Budget’s administrator for e-government and IT.

The budget proposal seeks an average overall IT funding increase for civilian agencies of 3 percent, according to budget documents from OMB. The administration has requested IT increases for slightly more than half of agencies.

Notably, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a 45.5 percent increase, an increase of $43 million more than the fiscal 2007 request. All of the NRC’s 14 project business cases are on the Management Watch List for fiscal 2008, which OMB officials will supervise carefully, Evans said in a briefing with reporters.

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2008 budget would boost IRS modernization by $85M

The Bush administration is seeking $282 million to modernize the Internal Revenue Service in his fiscal 2008 proposed budget, an $85 million increase over the fiscal 2007 request.

Modernization is one piece of a three-part strategy for closing the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. Congressional leaders have discussed how to bring in the taxes owed. Through modernization, the Treasury Department intends to emphasize the other two parts: better taxpayer services and enforcement to eliminate the gap, according to the budget proposal, which was released today.

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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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