Apparently, twenty-somethings who work for the VA love their jobs.
This is among the insights in a new report from the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte based on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 2010 employee survey. Keep reading →
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In this mini-documentary exclusive for Breaking Gov, award-winning journalist Dan Verton brings us back to the day that changed the world and traces the evolution of the homeland security mission through the eyes of three men who were present at its creation.
This is the story of the birth and evolution of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as told by the nation’s first secretary of Homeland Security, the deputy for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, and the CIA’s deputy director of intelligence, who would go on to become the first Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Keep reading →
The Postal Service presented a proposal to Congress on Tuesday that might stave off financial collapse but would have far-reaching ramifications for federal workers.
Postal officials say they will be unable to make this month’s $5.5 billion payment to cover future employee health care costs because the agency will have reached its borrowing limit and doesn’t have enough cash. The Postal Service has proposed ending Saturday mail delivery and is considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs as it faces a second straight year of losses of $8 billion or more. A decline in mail because of the Internet and the loss of revenue from advertising amid the economic downturn have taken a toll on the agency. Keep reading →
If the experiences of DHS and ODNI are any guide, the success or failure of reorganization may depend on dynamics and relationships that transcend the immediate borders of the new department or agency.
A new government enterprise does not exist in a vacuum, but must operate within a super system of sister departments, White House councils and czars, and congressional oversight
committees. While these institutional actors are rarely taken into account by those who design a new agency, they can have a profound impact on those charged with building and running the organization. Keep reading →
While in the throes of merging multiple agencies and thousands of employees nearly a decade ago, DHS and ODNI leaders became so focused on the mission — keeping Americans safe — that key management functions often fell through the proverbial cracks and ultimately weakened capabilities.
Management, it appears, is central to mission. That’s Lesson Three in a report released this week by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton detailing four lessons from the creation of and subsequent problems within the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Keep reading →
The experience of DHS and ODNI suggest leaders must imbed the vision and values in the new organization for it to gain traction and succeed, but that doing so might rank among the most challenging tasks.
Intangible elements, or the “soft stuff,” such as communicating a new culture and identity while remaining sensitive to tradition, are often the toughest to tackle. Keep reading →
An in-depth analysis of flaws in DHS and ODNI reorganization efforts shows both would have benefited from strong leadership to articulate the mission and the reasons for change, guide the transformation, and meld together disparate entities and management approaches.
Essentially, chain of command is necessary, but not sufficient. Keep reading →
Along with the obvious turmoil and political strife caused by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the historic tragedy set in motion the most significant government reorganizations in decades in the homeland defense and intelligence communities.
The effects of the reorganizations continue to reverberate today. For that reason, the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton released a report Tuesday detailing lessons from those efforts that may guide the Obama Administration in government reform and reorganization efforts currently under way. Keep reading →
While most of NASA is looking up to the stars, scientist
Goodman, 55, NASA’s go-to guy for natural disasters and hazards, is defying the stereotypes about the space agency. He’s always focused on the ground, coordinating the space agency’s response to earthbound catastrophes. NASA has been involved in earth research since the 1960s.
“We’re constantly imaging the earth. If a significant event occurs, that data can be processed and made available,” Goodman, an atmospheric scientist in NASA’s Earth Science Division, told AOL Government. “Our role is to provide spaceborne and airborne observations and data analyses that can assist in damage assessment and aid in the recovery.”
NASA is not chasing hurricanes, but is using its arsenal of 14 orbiting satellites to develop new technologies or to use current ones to better measure the characteristics of hurricanes and the conditions that produce them. The information is made available to front-line agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to help them develop better forecasts.
Our role is to provide spaceborne and airborne observations and data analyses that can assist in damage assessment and aid in the recovery.
Hurricane warnings are already posted from Florida to Boston. The Category 3 hurricane is expected to touch down in North Carolina late Friday. The path of the storm is expected to be catastrophic. And a NASA satellite is on the job taking regular images of Irene as it barrels north from the Bahamas.
NASA’s satellites are often able to get better and different images than NOAA’s satellites, complementing, not duplicating, Goodman said. The space agency is constantly improving computing power efficiencies aboard satellites and improved optic technologies.
The satellites use a variety of different remote sensing techniques including visible, infrared, passive and active microwave, synthetic aperture radar and lidar (optical remote sensing technology) to take the images. They are never called pictures.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite that is watching Irene uses an instrument known as the Precipitation Radar that can “see” through the clouds to measure the core of strongest hot towers of convection and updrafts.
As Hurricane Irene picked up steam this week in the Caribbean, the satellite began taking images of the storm on its regular north-south run of the Western Hemisphere. They pass over the same location only twice a day on its daily run, Goodman said.
The raw images are downloaded to tracking stations on the ground, analyzed, distributed to the proper agency and are available online, he said.
NASA works closely with several federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NOAA, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to provide imagery and data analyses for use by first responders in any kind of a disaster.
“If we know there’s a particular area we want to focus on, we can command the satellite to take the images. In some cases, we may want to compare the post-disaster with a pre-disaster image,” he said.
NASA’s fiscal 2011 Earth Science budget is $1.8 billion for the operations of existing satellites, Earth science research and analyses, and the development, launch, and operations of new satellite and instruments.
It recently took images for a host of other disasters, including:
- NASA provided full views of the Gulf of Mexico four times a day in 2010 for six months to track the evolution of the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
- NASA satellites mapped the extent of the 2011 Mississippi River spring floods. The Department of Homeland Security used the maps to plan their flood mitigation operations and to aid in the flood assessment and recovery.
- On April 27, 2011, a series of strong tornadic squall lines passed through Alabama and the surrounding states with over 50 tornadoes alone in Alabama. NASA images were instrumental in helping the National Weather Service locate, measure and evaluate the tracks of many of these tornadoes in the post-disaster phase.
NASA is the eyes for international disasters, too. Recent images included the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake and the eruption of the Icelandic volcano that spewed ash across Europe, both in 2010.
NASA imaging is used regularly by scientists to predict future disasters. But that comes with a dose of caution.
“In predicting the future, we’re only slightly better than the economists,” Goodman said.
Judi Hasson is an award-winning journalist who writes about technology and all things government.
A White House memo giving chief information officers at federal agencies greater responsibilities to reduce wasteful technology spending comes up short in giving CIOs the added authority many believe they need to make a significant impact, say current and former government IT officials.
The memo, issued by Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew on Aug. 8, notified U.S. department and agency chiefs that the CIOs working for them have been tasked with greater roles and responsibilities by OMB, as well as greater accountability, in controlling technology spending. Keep reading →