Office of Management and Budget Blog

The Administration is strongly committed to reducing duplication and fragmentation and has worked hard over the last four years to make that happen.

The Administration has made it a priority for Federal agencies to dispose of unneeded properties and make more efficient use of the Government’s real estate assets. As the next step in this effort, today, OMB is issuing guidance to direct agencies to implement a “Freeze the Footprint” policy for Federal real estate.

U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel announces the upcoming release of a strategy focused on protecting the innovation that drives the American economy and supports jobs in the United States.

Earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its score of H.R. 8, the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.” By convention, the score measured the effects of this legislation relative to “current law,” which assumes the expiration of all of the 2001/2003 tax cuts, cuts to Medicare physicians of almost 27 percent, and allowing the across the board cuts from sequestration to take effect. But that does not provide a realistic perspective on the impact of H.R. 8.

Since its creation in 2009, President Obama’s SAVE Award [Securing Americans Value and Efficiency] has served as a vehicle for Federal employees to offer firsthand their ideas on how to improve performance and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.

OMB marks another milestone in the Administration’s effort to change the way government does business – the launch of an updated and enhanced version of the Performance.gov website.

As part of the President’s Campaign to Cut Waste, this Administration has taken an aggressive approach to attacking waste, fraud, and abuse within government agencies. Nowhere is this more apparent than in combatting improper payments – those Federal payments that are made in the wrong amount, to the wrong entity, or for the wrong purpose.

Since coming into office in 2009, President Obama has made great strides in making government more accountable to the American people, pursuing tough reforms to cut waste and act as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.

The Campaign to Cut Waste has already achieved $4 billion dollars in savings in 2012, well on track to meet and exceed President Obama's goal of $8 billion by the end of FY 2013.

To fulfill its functions, the federal government asks people to fill out a lot of forms. To get permits and licenses, to pay taxes, and to qualify for benefits and grants, forms are often required. Too often, however, those forms are too confusing and complicated, especially for individuals and small businesses. Now, we are doing something about that problem.

With regret and deep gratitude, I am announcing that Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein will be leaving OMB this month.

Today, OMB released the Mid-Session Review (MSR), which updates the Administration’s estimates for outlays, receipts, and the deficit in light of economic, legislative, and other developments since the President’s 2013 Budget was released in February.

After three and a half years as a valued advisor and strategist and four budgets, OMB’s Associate Director for Communications and Strategic Planning and senior advisor Ken Baer departed last week.

The effort to create lasting, sustainable transparency and accountability across government is a long-term one, and one that the President and the Vice President are committed to seeing through. That’s why last year, the President created the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GATB). Using the lessons learned from implementing the Recovery Act, the GATB was charged with recommending ways to improve the tracking and display of Federal spending data and broaden the use of cutting-edge fraud detection technologies.