No USDA Furloughs
Is It Too Hard to Fire Misbehaving Feds?
Americans Still Like the Postal Service
Making Government 'Simpler'
No More Tax-Cheating Feds, Senators Say
Video: The Daily Show on Apple's Taxes
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Charles S. Clark
Senior Correspondent
Charlie Clark joined Government Executive in the fall of 2009. He has been on staff at The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Time-Life Books, Tax Analysts, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and the National Center on Education and the Economy. He has written or edited online news, daily news stories, long features, wire copy, magazines, books and organizational media strategies.
Consumer bureau nominee wins praise, but stalemate persists
September 7, 2011 Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spent his confirmation hearing on Tuesday taking in praise for his credentials and displaying his knowledge of his agency's workings. Still, key Republicans on the Senate banking panel carried on with their months-old strategy of blocking approval of ...
What's an Agency 'Horse Blanket'?
September 6, 2011 A hot-off-the-presses book on U.S. counterterrorism policy reveals an oddly named tool many agencies have had at their disposal since 2007. A "horse blanket," according to "Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda" by New York Times correspondents Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, is "a large, ...
House Republicans continue demanding Obama disaster-spending plan
September 6, 2011 Congress returned on Tuesday to take up emergency disaster-relief spending, a day after Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew released an estimate of new federal money needed to respond to damage from Hurricane Irene. Lew's figure of $1.5 billion, which would come on top of the $5.2 billion ...
Grumblings persist over demise of Statistical Abstract
September 2, 2011 Late this month, the 131st edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States is scheduled for release. It will be the final installment of the paper edition of the fact-packed government annual, a planned casualty of the current budget austerity that stands only a slight chance, sources say, of ...
OMB sends Congress preliminary budget number for disaster relief
September 2, 2011 In a first step in what is becoming a politically charged battle over federal disaster spending, Obama administration budget director Jack Lew on Thursday sent Congress an estimate -- required under the 2011 Budget Control Act -- of what will be needed for disaster relief spending in fiscal 2012: an ...
IRS allowed $4.2 billion in credits to undocumented workers, audit says
September 1, 2011 Undocumented workers received refundable tax credits totaling $4.2 billion in 2010, a dramatic rise from less than $1 billion in 2005, said a report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The Internal Revenue Service, however, said it lacks the authority to disallow claims for the credit ...
Wartime commission report on waste prompts opposing reactions
September 1, 2011 This week's report by a commission charging that contracting operations wasted as much as $60 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan was applauded by many as a prod to new reforms. But at least one contractors' group attacked the work of the congressionally chartered panel as unfair. The Professional Services Council ...
Ten Years After
September 1, 2011 On the anniversary of our gravest terrorist attack, federal agencies take stock of the quest to keep America safe Soon after assuming office in January 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wanted to send an agencywide email. She got some bad news from tech support: The department, then in its ...
Caught Off Guard
September 1, 2011 FPS is slow in applying technology to protect government buildings. The Federal Protective Service has made visible but limited progress in improving its risk management program-which addresses threats to agency buildings-and in the transfer of its programs to new authorities within the Homeland Security Department. At least that's the view ...
Pentagon Suffering From Civilian 'Bloat'?
August 31, 2011 The Defense Department's civilian workforce, which currently numbers around 750,000, is an example of the "bureaucratic bloat" the government has undergone in defense and intelligence since the 9/11 attacks, former Navy Secretary John Lehman said on Wednesday at a panel discussion by former members of the 9/11 Commission. When the ...
