Clapper’s Near-International Incident

• By Charles S. Clark
• April 26, 2013
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Highlights of Thursday’s Presidential Rank Awards banquet at the State Department included recognition of an apparently unprecedented third distinguished executive award bestowed on John H. Thompson of the Veterans Affairs Department, as well as a fabulous performance of doo-wop classics by a quintet of Naval Academy Midshipmen called The Skivs.

But perhaps most memorable moment was the rare telling of a boyhood near-misadventure by keynote speaker Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. His broader speech honored the senior executives’ achievements and dedication to the public good, advising them to think beyond their own organizations and to “mentor, not just manage” the next generation.

But the pep talk came after Clapper revealed that as a young “Army brat” in the years after World War II, he lived with his parents for a time in Alexandria, Egypt. One night, while dining at the famous Shepherd’s Hotel, none other than Egypt’s King Farouk (who reigned from 1936 to 1952) approached the Clappers. “My mother was a good-looking blond,” Clapper recalled, and soon the monarch was “hitting on her.”  Papa Clapper “took exception to that and took a swing at the king,” the DNI said. This, he acknowledged dryly ...

FLOTUS to Feds: You’re Invisible

• By Kellie Lunney
• April 23, 2013
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“People don’t even know you exist.”

No, that’s not some high school mean girl in Anytown, U.S.A. talking. That’s First Lady Michelle Obama speaking to Interior Department employees on Tuesday.

The line elicited laughs from federal workers in the audience, and to be fair, was couched between high praise for the department’s 70,000 employees across the country. It was Mrs. Obama’s second visit to Interior (the first was four years ago at the beginning of the president’s first term). The pep rally was especially well-timed; furloughs for the U.S. Park Police started on Sunday. Sequestration is threatening Interior employees’ paychecks, not to mention the public’s summer vacation plans.

Here’s the excerpt with the line from the White House transcript of the First Lady’s remarks:

But I also know that the work that you do isn’t easy, especially right now during these times. I know that budget cuts mean that you all are juggling even more responsibilities with fewer resources. And I know that many of you are stretched thinner than ever before. So that’s one of the reasons why it’s just as important for ...

A Pentagon Executive’s Real Hometown

• By Charles S. Clark
• April 23, 2013
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Last December’s release of the quadrennial “Plum Book,” the congressionally compiled list of top government jobs and supporting positions, contained a curiosity. In the section on the Defense Department’s top management, among the many jobs located in Arlington, Va., home to the Pentagon, was a notation for Shay Assad, director of Defense pricing policy. His location? Boston.

Assad, who has worked for Defense since 2004, was asked by to explain after a recent speech to a contractors group in Arlington. “My home portal,” he said, is at the pricing center at the Defense Contract Management Agency’s south Boston office. The decision to reside there, made when he ascended to the pricing job in June 2011, allowed the department to eliminate one Senior Executive Service position and three GS-15s from the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy shop.

That would appear to make up for the costs of commuting to Washington, where Assad, who is career SES, is expected to spend about 25 percent of his time, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Assad works directly for Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics on major programs, an arrangement made to “ensure that the entire organization ...

Earth Day Intervention

• By Charles S. Clark
• April 22, 2013
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The Environmental Protection Agency on Earth Day has interrupted its normal website home page programming with a special set of interactive presentations to mark the occasion.  A simple but stirring photo of the planet is accompanied by text declaring simply, “Today is Earth Day.” Alongside are links to a slide show, events for volunteers and an invitation to send in your own photos.

Down below is an unobtrusive query, “Looking for EPA’s regular home page?” Just click and it’s back to the agency’s quotidian fare.

At a less-likely agency across town, the Treasury Department touted its own environmental initiatives that include a push to paperless payments and a reduced footprint for office space.“While people may associate Treasury with another kind of green, we’re proud of the progress we’ve been able to make on protecting the environment,” Nani Coloretti, assistant Treasury secretary for management, said in an email to Government Executive. “From sourcing our power from renewable resources and conserving water in the production of currency, to Treasury headquarters’ distinction as the oldest LEED Gold-certified building in America, we try to treat every day as Earth Day.” 

Pete Williams, Government Operations and Getting it Right

• By Tom Shoop
• April 19, 2013
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Brian Resnick of National Journal has a fascinating piece up about why Pete Williams of NBC News is winning plaudits for consistently getting it right (and being measured in his reporting) during the Boston bombing aftermath.

Part of it is simply taking time and care before you broadcast anything. But part of it also stems from Williams' experience working in government. Resnick notes that Williams has been in Washington since 1986, when he served as press secretary to then-Rep. Dick Cheney of Wyoming. He became Cheney's spokesman at the Pentagon when Cheney was appointed Defense secretary in 1989. Williams didn't turn to journalism until 1993, when he joined NBC.

Resnick notes that PBS recently profiled Williams, and includes this quote from him:

I decided—and I think that this is just the right way to think about it—that governments have an understandable and legitimate need to keep some things secret. It’s not keeping it secret from the citizens, it’s that certain operations work better if they are confidential and secret …

Having worked on the inside, I think you get a better sense of when the government is truly rightly keeping something secret, and when it ...