Weekly Roundup: June 1 - 5, 2015

Sequestration’s Long Tail. Federal News Radio reports that the 2013 sequester led the Defense department to suddenly cancel contracts or delay the development or fielding of new systems. This led to hundreds of millions in longer-term additional costs, to be felt in upcoming years. Standardizing Administrative Leave. Federal News Radio reports that the Office of Personnel Management has released a memo outlining steps it will take to standardize how agencies will report administrative leave costs. A GAO report “found inaccurate data because of how agencies reported to the federal payroll providers about their used paid administrative leave, and because of how the payroll providers reported back to OPM.” Harvard professor Steve Kelman says the effort might backfire on agencies if they are required to keep employees under investigation for wrong-doing on the job. Silicon Valley Takeover? Government Executive reports on a “powerful influx of cutting-edge technology executives, who have flown East to Washington DC in order to help transform the US government into an innovative and 21st century data-driven digital entity.” Hackers Breach OPM Personnel Records. According to the Washington Post: “Hackers working for the Chinese state breached the computer system of the Office of Personnel Management in December, U.S. officials said Thursday, and the agency will notify about 4 million current and former federal employees that their personal data may have been compromised.” GSA’s Best Practices Dashboard of Federal Websites. FedScoop reports: The federal government now has a dashboard monitoring the best practices of its roughly 1,300 top-level domains. . . . Called Pulse, the dashboard measures federal websites' participation in the Digital Analytics Program and their use of HTTPS.” * * * * * The Business of Government Radio Show: Conversations with Leaders. How will the Census Bureau use mobile technology in the 2020 Census? How does a federal agency mobilize over a half million people as census takers? What are the challenges of organizing an agency to face the future? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and much more with Nancy Potok, deputy director and chief operating officer for the U.S. Census Bureau. 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.