GSA weighs placing policy office under congressional affairs
Employees told that the move would not substantially change the policy operation.
Employees in the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy are being told that a proposal to place the organization under the agency's congressional affairs office would not substantially change the policy shop.
GSA spokeswoman Claire Dorrell said the proposal has not been finalized. The plan calls for the creation of a new Office of Congressional and Governmental Affairs. Dorrell said reports that the proposal would eliminate the policy office's direct appropriation account are false.
The plan would not require congressional permission, but the Office of Management and Budget would have to approve the move, sources said. One source said on condition of anonymity that the proposal simply places the policy office under the congressional affairs office as opposed to merging the two.
"It would create a single office that would support GSA," Dorrell said. "Part of the administrator's goal has been to find ways to serve our federal customers as efficiently and quickly as possible."
The Office of Governmentwide Policy was created in December 1995 as a means of consolidating GSA's policy functions. The office has been heavily involved in implementing OMB's e-government agenda. It has authority to set policies in the areas of personal and real property, travel and transportation, information technology, regulatory information and use of federal advisory committees.
The congressional affairs office has been headed by Kevin Messner since June 2006. Last week GSA Administrator Lurita Doan named Messner, a political appointee, to replace career employee John Sindelar as the acting associate administrator of the policy office. Messner will lead both offices simultaneously.
Sindelar, a 33-year civil servant, has served in management positions within the executive branch's purchasing arm since the Reagan administration. He has been an outspoken advocate of the Bush administration's attempts to use information technology to streamline government.
Sources say Sindelar's support of IT initiatives put him at odds with Doan, who initially was not excited by the administration's attempts to centralize agencies' back-office IT functions. Doan has since reversed her position, announcing her support of e-government efforts.
Messner, who came to GSA from the office of Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., where he was the chief of staff, has said he likes working at GSA because it is a place that can help leverage the buying power of the federal government.