Video: The Daily Show Takes on Military Sexual Assault

• By Ross Gianfortune
• August 9, 2013
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In May, the Pentagon released a study on the military’s long-standing problem of failing to prevent or properly handle sexual assault within its ranks. Defense has been under more scrutiny on this issue because of high-profile cases of assault and increased media interest, including the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War. Congress' increasing involvement has included hearings on a bill championed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

Thursday night, The Daily Show spent an entire segment on the issue leading into an interview with Gillibrand. Host John Oliver praised the military members and hoped for only “Magical, consensual sex with unicorns” for service members. Oliver then praised President Obama’s strong call for accountability in the area.

The host then took issue with military judges who have called Obama’s comments “unlawful command influence," saying the president could not be more neutral on the issue. “How is the president unlawfully influencing a case by saying people guilty of sexual assault should be found guilty?” Oliver asked.

Obama on the Tonight Show: Diplomats ‘Don’t Get Enough Credit’

• By Ross Gianfortune
• August 7, 2013
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Since his election in 2008, President Barack Obama has visited every major late-night talk show and last night, he was in Southern California to visit The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Obama was the only guest for Leno to interview -- Patti LaBelle was a musical guest -- and Leno spent the vast majority of the show with the president.

Leno first asked Obama about his birthday, before launching into questions about the recent threat from al-Qaeda that became public this week. After talking about the worldwide threat of terrorism, Obama praised federal workers at American embassies throughout the world. “It’s also a reminder of how courageous our embassy personnel tend to be, because you can never have 100 percent security in some of these places.

“These diplomats, they go out there and serve every day,” Obama said. “Often times they have their families with them.  They do an incredible job and sometimes don’t get enough credit.

“We’re grateful to them and we have to do everything we can to protect them,” Obama concluded, to applause from the Burbank audience.

Leno connected the embassy closings and travel restrictions to the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, asking Obama if ...

Should Federal Employees Be Forced to Switch Health Plans?

• By Charles S. Clark
• August 2, 2013
• comments

As the House prepared for the 40th time to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans and Democrats talked past each other Thursday at a contentious Ways and Means Committee oversight hearing on implementation of the law. Amid the fireworks over whether Obamacare should be “destroyed,” the two federal officials present as witnesses had to beg off on opining about political and policy conundrums that are literally above their pay grades.

But then Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, as part of a series of questions based on the premise that the health care law is forcing Americans to sign up for insurance exchanges against their will, asked acting Internal Revenue Service chief Danny Werfel why his employees who belong to the National Treasury Employees Union have declined to switch from their current federal insurance to the coming new marketplaces.

“I’m not speaking for NTEU, but will tell you how I feel,” Werfel replied. As federal employees, “we have affordable health coverage now. The Affordable Care Act was designed as an option for those who do not. So if you’re satisfied with your coverage, you’re in a position to stick with that coverage rather than make the change ...

The Lawmaker’s Art of Rushing Questions and Awaiting No Answers

• By Charles S. Clark
• August 1, 2013
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Many a federal official has experienced the feeling of being used as a prop while testifying at a congressional hearing.  Members of Congress often interrogate witnesses based on their own agendas—especially in this age of Web-streamed hearings and YouTube publicity—and with their constituents or fellow lawmakers in mind.

At Wednesday’s House Homeland Security joint subcommittee hearing on rising misconduct by airport screeners at the Transportation Security Agency, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., provided an example of the art of asking questions -- for the record -- and then cutting witnesses off as they attempted to come up with a reply.

The co-stars are Steve Lord of the Government Accountability Office and John Halinski, TSA’s deputy director.

The Highest-Performing Operation in Government

• By Tom Shoop
• July 31, 2013
• comments

Some years ago, I wrote a rather churlish column for Government Executive on my experiences with the State Department's passport processing operation. In it, I warned that customer service was about to become a critical issue for State's Bureau of Consular Affairs (which handles passport applications), because of an impending requirement that U.S. citizens use passports for travel to Canada and Mexico.

Apparently, the bureau has done a pretty good job -- at least in one of its largest passport processing offices, in New York City. In a piece in Slate called "The Most Efficient Office in the World," Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan characterize the operation as being in the "vanguard of workplace effectiveness." Reviewers on Yelp, they note, give the New York Passport Agency 4.5 out of 5 stars for service. Its offices are well-organized, managers and employees are well-trained, and the focus is squarely on moving people as quickly as possible through the application and approval process. 

Fisman and Sullivan compare the New York passport operation to other government offices, such as the Postal Service and local motor vehicle departments. But it's worth stacking all of these government operations up against private companies ...