Subscribe

OMBlog

  • SAVE More

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on July 7, 2010 at 11:59 PM EDT

    In just three weeks, federal employees submitted more than 38,000 ideas identifying opportunities to save money and improve performance. After these were winnowed to a final four, the top idea was voted on by tens of thousands of Americans, and the winner – Nancy Fichtner from Loma, Colorado – came to the White House to present her proposal to save money in how the VA uses prescription medication. As we head into the FY 2012 budget season, the President today kicked off the second annual SAVE Award, asking workers on the frontlines to take a hard look again and to share their ideas and insight at www.SAVEAward.gov.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Cutting Waste and Saving Money Through Contracting Reform

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on July 7, 2010 at 9:38 AM EDT

    In March 2009, the President directed agencies to save $40 billion annually by Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 through contracting and to reduce the use of high-risk contracts. Last December, OMB reported on agency plans to save $19 billion in FY 2010, and agencies are on track to meet that savings goal as well as the larger one for 2011.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Four for the Fourth

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on July 2, 2010 at 12:00 PM EDT

    I’ve written a lot lately about how the information technology gap between the public and private sectors is driving a gap in productivity and how closing this gap is key to creating a government that is efficient and effective.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • CBO’s Long-Term Budget Outlook

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 30, 2010 at 1:26 PM EDT

    The Congressional Budget Office today released its long-term budget outlook. Just like the long-term outlook in our own Budget, the CBO report concludes that we are on an unsustainable fiscal course. About this, there is no ambiguity.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Buying in Bulk

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 30, 2010 at 9:30 AM EDT

    For the past few weeks, I’ve blogged about common-sense steps we are taking across the federal government to cut waste and bring better services to the American people.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Cutting Waste by Reforming IT

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 28, 2010 at 9:40 AM EDT

    As I’ve written before, one source of ineffective and inefficient government is the technology gap between the public and private sectors.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Life is a Series of Hellos and Goodbyes

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 25, 2010 at 5:00 PM EDT

    Earlier this week, I announced that I will be stepping down as OMB Director. It has been a great honor to serve in President Obama’s Cabinet, and the decision to step down was not an easy one.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • PaymentAccuracy.gov

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 24, 2010 at 2:01 PM EDT

    As I wrote recently, one of the steps we are taking to cut waste in government and boost performance is establishing a Do Not Pay List, a single source through which all agencies can check the status of a potential contractor or individual, so that a barred or ineligible individual or organization is not paid erroneously. This is part of a sustained effort we have taken to go after the $100 billion wasted in improper payments each year by the federal government.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Do Not Pay? Do Read This Post

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 18, 2010 at 11:30 AM EDT

    Over the past few weeks (and since taking office 16 months ago), we have focused on cutting waste, boosting efficiency, and creating a government more open and responsive to the American people.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • New York and the New England Journal of Medicine

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 17, 2010 at 2:53 PM EDT

    Yesterday, I was in New York for a series of meetings with a health-care related theme. For instance, I ran with the Mighty Milers of PS 128 in Washington Heights who are part of an innovative program to get children moving and to stem the epidemic of childhood obesity. And later that day, I met with doctors and administrators at the NYU Medical School and Langone Medical Center where I saw firsthand how they are using cutting-edge technology – in the operating room and in the executive suite -- to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and to constantly push their organization toward higher-quality medicine.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Moving with the Mighty Milers

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 16, 2010 at 6:45 PM EDT

    Summer is a great opportunity for communities to address two of the challenges facing kids nationwide when school lets out: unhealthy eating habits and the summer reading gap. That’s why First Lady Michelle Obama has launched the Administration-wide Let’s Read. Let’s Move. initiative to combat childhood obesity and summer reading loss by encouraging youth to read and participate in physical activity, as well as providing access to healthy food. As part of that initiative, I joined a group of students today in upper Manhattan who are leading the charge against childhood obesity. They are the Mighty Milers of PS 128 and they have collectively run over 42,000 miles this year!

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Uncle Sam Switches Plans

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 16, 2010 at 8:51 AM EDT

    The effort to cut waste and modernize government is truly an Administration-wide one. Not only are a wide array of agencies getting into the act — from IT projects killed at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to the reform of the crop insurance program at the Department of Agriculture, but also federal workers.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • The Check is Not in the Mail

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 14, 2010 at 11:41 AM EDT

    Last week, I spoke about the President’s commitment to create a government that is efficient, effective, transparent, and responsive. Since then, the Administration has unveiled some of the steps we are taking toward this goal: from identifying the bottom 5 percent of government programs to disposing of excess buildings and real estate and the Agriculture Department’s re-negotiating of its contract with crop insurance companies (which will reduce deficits by $4 billion over ten years).

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Eliminating Waste by Getting Rid of Unneeded Federal Real Estate

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 10, 2010 at 10:24 AM EDT

    The Federal Government is the largest property owner and energy user in the country, with an inventory that includes 1.2 million buildings, structures, and land parcels. This includes 14,000 building and structures currently designated as excess and 55,000 identified as under- and not-utilized. Currently, Federal agencies operate and maintain more real property assets than necessary, unnecessarily raising costs to the taxpayer.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • More Computing Power on Your Belt Than at Your Desk?

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 9, 2010 at 4:55 PM EDT

    In a blog posting, Tom Shoop raised a question about a sentence in my speech yesterday that, "at one time, a federal worker went to the office and had access to cutting-edge computer power and programs. Now, he often has more of both clipped to a device on his belt." Tom noted that as impressive as it is, he wasn’t sure that his Android-based Smartphone has anywhere near the computing power of even an eight- or ten-year-old PC.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Closing the IT Gap

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 8, 2010 at 11:25 AM EDT

    When many of my colleagues went from the cutting-edge, social media-focused Obama presidential campaign into the federal government, they remarked that it was like going from an X-box to an Atari.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • The Affordable Care Act and the Deficit

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on June 2, 2010 at 1:50 PM EDT

    CBO Director Doug Elmendorf recently gave a presentation on health costs and the fiscal outlook. Doug concludes that the federal budget remains on an unsustainable course even after enactment of the Affordable Care Act, and I wholly agree with him.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Congratulations, Graduates

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on May 29, 2010 at 3:30 PM EDT

    I just left Troy, New York where I delivered the commencement address at the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI). It’s an amazing university – the nation’s oldest technological university – and it’s headed by the incomparable Shirley Jackson: a physicist, member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and former head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as a leading voice on science policy.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Reducing Unnecessary Spending

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on May 24, 2010 at 11:36 AM EDT

    Today, the President sent to Congress the Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2010 to establish a new, expedited tool to reduce unnecessary or wasteful spending. Under this new expedited procedure, the President would submit a package of rescissions shortly after a spending bill is passed. Congress is then required to consider these recommendations as a package, without amendment, and with a guaranteed up-or-down vote within a specified timeframe.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

  • Toward Our Clean Energy Future

    Posted by Peter Orszag, Director on May 21, 2010 at 4:50 PM EDT

    From the consumer who sees the costs of filling her gas tank or heating her home go up to the scientists tracking how climate change is affecting our planet, we all know that maintaining our reliance on oil and other fossil fuels to power our economy entails significant costs and risks. One of the pillars of the new foundation for long-term economic growth is therefore positioning the United States to be a world leader in clean energy technologies.

    read the rest
    Learn more about

We the People- Create and sign petitions on whitehouse.gov

Feedback Link