The Obama Administration today announced a new set of public-private partnership initiatives aimed at combating the rising use of botnets.
Industry estimates suggest that one in 10 computers in the U.S. is currently infected by a botnet – software used by hackers to seize control of vast numbers of personal computers for malicious or illegal intent. Keep reading →
Only 6% of civilian agencies and 3% Defense and Intelligence agencies currently have the infrastructure and processes in place to take full advantage of big data sets and most federal organizations will need at least three years before they can, according to a just-released survey of federal IT professionals.
The survey’s findings seem to indicate a rocky road ahead for President Obama’s “Big Data Research and Development Initiative” announced in late March. As part of that initiative, six federal departments and agencies announced more than $200 million in new big data projects. Keep reading →
Our country has now been without a critical incentive for homegrown innovation for nearly four months. That is four months without an incentive for an inventor to take his emerging company to the next level. That is four months that technology firms have looked to other countries as options to invest their research and development dollars. That’s right- the United States has been without a Research and Development Tax Credit for more than a quarter of the year.
There has been lots of talk of the R&D tax credit but nothing has happened. President Obama has twice proposed strengthening and making permanent the research and development tax credit. Congress talks about spurring innovation and creating jobs. We are thrilled to hear all of this but it’s going to take action from both the Administration and Congress to make that happen. Keep reading →
This is the fourth in a series of profiles of innovative leaders in government based on interviews for the book “Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government” by Paul R. Lawrence and Mark A. Abramson. The book highlights the management lessons of 24 political executives during their first two years in the Obama administration.
Undertaking innovation in government is a challenge. Government leaders must work with their existing tool kit, primarily grants and contracts, to bring about their desired results. It is rare that Congress gives government new authorities and a new portfolio of tools. (One exception is the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in the Department of Energy). Keep reading →
This is the second in a series of profiles of innovative leaders in government based on interviews by the authors Paul R. Lawrence and Mark A. Abramson for the book “Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government.” The book highlights the management lessons of 24 political executives during their first two years in the Obama administration.
Historically, a major criticism of government has been that it consists of individual government agencies (often called stove-pipes or silos) which tend not to work very well with other agencies, even those within their own department.
When she arrived at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan found some truth in this criticism of government. Many agencies within USDA viewed themselves as somewhat independent of the Office of the Secretary. Keep reading →
The Obama Administration has adopted a number of initiatives to promote smart, cost-justified regulation, according to a White House blog post today.
The president ordered an unprecedented government-review of existing rules in January, the post states, resulting in ambitious reform plans from more than two dozen agencies. The plans outline hundreds of cost-saving reforms, some of which will save more than $10 billion over the next five years, the post states. Keep reading →
The federal government’s march to mobility will increasingly revolve around a new, broader digital strategy, expected to be released this spring, a White House Office of Management and Budget official said today.
Lisa Schlosser, deputy chief information officer at OMB, said the administration and Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel are continuing to embrace the mobility revolution. VanRoekel publically declared 2012 as the “year of mobile government” earlier this year in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show and highlighted an initiative to develop a new Federal Mobility Strategy. Keep reading →
President Obama’s new budget shows savings of $50 million annually by curtailing the production of unwanted $1 coins. As a former budget director for President Reagan, I know first-hand how difficult it is to cut spending and how important it is to guard against faddish programs that claim savings but actually add to federal spending and to the deficit – which is what you’d get if you let Congress replace the dollar bill with the dollar coin.
The latest proposals to do just that are all the more vexing, given that consumers overwhelmingly reject the dollar coin. Keep reading →
The White House launched a new website today devoted to government ethics practices, fulfilling the President’s campaign promise to create a single website for searches related to executive branch ethics and influence data.
The new website is part of the administration’s Data.gov website, and can be found at Explore.data.gov/ethics. The site provides the public the ability to enter a name and search government data, to see available records on individuals in government-“including campaign finance, lobbying, and White House visitor records,” according to the site. Keep reading →
Partnership for Public Service Presidnet and CEO Max Stier urged Congress on Wednesday to answer 25 key questions before moving ahead with proposals to reorganize federal agencies as part of efforts to save money and increase efficiency.
Wednesday’s hearing — “Why Reshuffling Government Agencies Won’t Solve the Federal Government’s Obesity Problem” — was scheduled to shed light on proposals to assess and reshuffle the size of our federal government. Keep reading →