Coronavirus
End of pandemic inspector general's office could hurt ongoing efforts to enforce accountability
A former senior official for the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery said there were about 40 unfinished cases when the office’s authority lapsed, some of which were referred to other agencies and others closed.
Social Security to finalize rules making expanded phone and video hearings permanent
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the agency quickly pivoted toward offering disability determination hearings by phone and video, options that remain popular today.
FDA greenlights a new COVID vaccine after a summer of rising numbers of cases
While the death rate from COVID-19 steadily decreased during the first half of the year, it began ticking up slightly in June, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Agencies have only completed about half of GAO’s COVID-19 recommendations
Many of the open recommendations deal with matters on GAO’s high risk list.
Fauci defends his work on COVID-19, says he has an ‘open mind’ on its origins
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases explained to members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic why guidance shifted so much during the first several months of the pandemic.
Is the strategic national stockpile ready for the next emergency? GAO says no.
A new GAO report says HHS hasn’t resolved issues that were exposed when states tried to request stockpile supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden rescinds COVID-era executive orders, folding safer federal workforce task force
The Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance last week rescinding some forms of COVID-19-related administrative leave, but preserving four hours of paid leave for federal employees to get vaccine booster shots.
Lawmakers propose extending pandemic analytics center beyond 2025 sunset
Oversight officials say that the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence needs to survive past the looming sunset date, unlike a similar analytics center used to oversee stimulus spending that shuttered in 2015.
Anti-vaccine feds still fighting for damages over Biden's federal employee mandate
After the Supreme Court's dismissal, a group of 8,500 federal employees is trying a new approach to score a win against the administration.
Supreme Court vacates ruling restricting president's right to issue federal workforce mandates
The high court ended the case against President Biden's vaccine mandate, calling it moot.
From payment accuracy to program integrity
COMMENTARY | The staggering level of pandemic fraud coupled with mounting concerns about the size and trajectory of the nation’s debt load should elevate program integrity as a top management focus, writes one observer.
Under fire, Social Security chief vows ‘top-to-bottom’ review of payment clawbacks
House members faulted the agency for issuing billions of dollars of payments in error and then, often much later, demanding that beneficiaries pay the money back.
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COVID relief payments triggered feds to demand money back from Social Security recipients
House and Senate members have called for action on problems at the Social Security Administration.
The painful pandemic lessons Mandy Cohen carries to the CDC
Cohen has been criticized for North Carolina's failure to get COVID tests to the most vulnerable residents, during her leadership of the state's pandemic response.
House GOP demands info on Biden’s implementation of vaccine mandate for feds
A subcommittee is probing several agencies to look for "wrongdoing by government officials" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden asks Supreme Court to salvage a president’s right to issue federal workforce mandates
The White House’s vaccine mandate is no longer in effect, but the Biden administration is worried about precedent.
How a combination of covid lawsuits and media coverage keeps misinformation churning
Even as the covid-19 pandemic wanes, litigation — whether about vaccines, masks, or a range of other public health policies made during the pandemic — isn’t about to end.
CDC rolls out new COVID-19 website
The reworked COVID-19 website is part of a larger push to make the public health agency’s web presence easier to navigate, with plans to relaunch CDC.gov early next year.
The CDC is getting a new leader as it seeks to remake itself after the pandemic
Dr. Mandy Cohen, former head of North Carolina’s Health and Human Services Department, will be stepping in as the public health agency’s new director in July.
‘These were not normal times’: A former watchdog reflects on COVID-19 oversight
Bob Westbrooks, who first joined the government in 1994, served as executive director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee for over two years.
The congressional COVID-19 oversight commission is about to sunset
Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., is the lone member left on the panel.
