Weekly Round-up: March 22, 2013

This post has been updated to include Dan Chenok’s contributions.

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• Digital Currency Examined. I once described “Gov 2.0” as government’s activities in and regulation of the digital landscape. Learning that Treasury is going to be watching virtual currencies to check for money laundering, as the Wall Street Journal reports, is very Gov 2.0.
• No Known Unknowns. Mark Drapeau writes about “Four Fundamental Ways To Think About Social Media”

Dan Chenok

• The Federal 100 winners are announced!
• Dr’s lead the way to mobility in medicine at VA.
• House passses over a dozen management statutes.

John Kamensky

• IT Reform Moves Out of House Committee. Joseph Mark, with NextGov, reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has passed a comprehensive overhaul of legislation governing the management and acquisition of federal information technology. Marks reports that the committee “unanimously passed legislation on Wednesday that would mark the most significant reform in more than a decade to the way the government purchases information technology.”
• Air Force Cancels Money-Saving Steps as Result of Sequester. While Congress has adopted a budget for the remainder of the year, the sequester continues to have counter-intuitive effects on agencies. Federal Times reports that the Air Force will cancel its investments in energy efficiency projects – to save billions in the long term – in order to meet short-term savings required under the sequester.
• GAO Goes Mobile. GAO released a mobile application for iPhones last year. It has now developed an app for Android devices since, according to GAO, “Android traffic to GAO.gov has increased 27% over the past two quarters.” GAO says the free app “provides direct, simple, mobile access to new reports, testimonies, videos, and podcasts.” It is now available in the Google Play story. . . . Now we’re just waiting for OMB to make the President’s Budget available on mobile!

Michael Keegan

Pentagon to delay furlough notices for two weeks
The Defense Department is reassessing its plan to furlough the majority of its 780,000-member civilian workforce for the remainder of 2013, Pentagon officials said Thursday. The decision is a result of Congress’s passage of a 2013 funding bill, which averts a government shutdown and funds federal agencies for the remainder of 2013. The omnibus spending package provides DoD and a handful of other departments with full-year appropriations bills while leaving much of the rest of the federal government under a 2012 continuing resolution for the remainder of the year. The House voted on and passed the legislation earlier Thursday, sending it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Challenges await the next OMB head
President Barack Obama’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget is not expected to face much opposition in her confirmation hearing. But Sylvia Mathews Burwell should not expect the same easy road when managing the fiscal agenda, according to one expert.

GAO could get more muscle with new bill
A bill aimed to bolster the investigative powers of the Government Accountability Office was introduced last week and is now headed to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for consideration.

Challenge and opportunity await in data center consolidation
As agencies scramble to comply with cost-cutting IT initiatives, many are turning the challenges inherent in data center consolidation into opportunities and taking the long view on expected savings. Federal IT experts from three agencies addressed some of those challenges at a FedInsider event titled “Federal Data Centers: 2013 and Beyond” on March 20. They said the issues boil down to doing more with less — a common phrase these days.

Richard Spires: The long-term change agent
While most agency CIOs last only a couple of years, Richard Spires has been a rare exception. After serving as associate CIO and then CIO at the Internal Revenue Service for much of the second George W. Bush administration, Spires was tapped in 2009 to lead the $6.4 billion IT portfolio at the Department of Homeland Security. He now spearheads the development, implementation and maintenance of the department’s IT architecture.

The Business of Government Radio Show: Conversations with Authors: Professor Harry Lambright

The Business of Government Hour features a conversation about management with a government executive who is changing the way government does business. The executives discuss their careers and the management challenges facing their organizations.

Prof. Harry Lambright on Leaders and Leadership – Lessons from Robert Gates, Francis Collins, and NASA Administrators

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Wednesday at noon, on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED

If you can’t wait, though, you can listen to (or download) this week’s program and all our previous interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.