Office of Management and Budget Blog

Earlier this morning, the President announced that he intends to nominate Heather Higginbottom as the Deputy Director of OMB.

A cornerstone of the President’s Accountable Government Initiative and Open Government Initiative is the belief that transparency leads to more oversight, less waste, and more accountability, resulting in a more effective government. For too long, many government resources have been difficult to navigate or inaccessible.

On Thursday night, the Senate confirmed my nomination to be the Director of OMB, and yesterday was the start of my first week in the job. I wanted to take a minute to say how great it is to back at OMB and to join the talented team here that is already hard at work producing a Budget for 2012.

Readers of OMBlog are now quite familiar with the Administration’s determined effort to cut the billions of dollars wasted each year in improper payments -- payments made by the government to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount. These include payments made in error by a government agency sending a benefit check, inadequate documentation by a local provider, or outright fraud by a contractor or other recipient.

More than 45,000 people have made their voices heard in selecting this year’s winner of the President’s SAVE Award – and there is still time for you to vote too. Just go to www.SAVEAward.gov, take a few seconds, and help select the best idea from our Final Four on how government can cut waste and improve performance.

Whether the budget is in surplus or in deficit, we cannot tolerate the wasting of taxpayer dollars – and there are few more egregious examples of waste than improper payments. These are payments made by the government to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount, and last year, they totaled approximately $110 billion.

As part of the President’s Accountable Government Initiative, OMB along with our colleagues throughout the federal government has been launching a series of initiatives to close the "technology gap" between the private and public sectors to cut waste and boost performance. As part of that effort, my team was directed to develop a comprehensive strategy to reform how IT projects are built and procured.

Today, the Technology CEO Council released a report outlining a plan to “maximize productivity…and enhance government services” through the use of technology. This distinguished group of corporate leaders -- from companies such as IBM, Dell, and Motorola -- believe that by utilizing some of the best practices of the private sector, the government can realize significant savings and improve the service delivered to you, the taxpayers.

The country faces extraordinary challenges -- from growing our economy to transforming our energy supply, improving our children’s education, safeguarding our Nation, and restoring its fiscal health. There is a distinct role for government in addressing these challenges, but it will only be possible with a government that runs effectively and efficiently. That’s the central goal of our Accountable Government Initiative -- to cut waste and make government work better and faster.

Today, as part of the Obama Administration’s Accountable Government Initiative, we released a list of 26 high-priority IT projects across the Federal government that have the potential for faster, smarter implementation.

Good morning, OMBlog readers. Beginning today, I am serving as Acting Director until Jack Lew is confirmed as OMB Director – and I’ll be guest blogging here.

The President just appointed all 10 members of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) including OMB’s own Preeta Bansal, our General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor, as Vice Chair of the Council, and Michael Fitzpatrick, our Associate Administrator at OIRA, as a member of the ACUS Council.

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.

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.