Blog
August 1, 2006
FPDS-NG testing
Washington Technology reports that GSA wants people to test FPDS-NG, one of the systems being mooted for replacement as a consequence of S.2590, the bill which proposes creation of a single federal funding (contracts and grants) data. (Go try it out, here.)…
July 31, 2006
GCN story on GAO report
This GCN article is a little misleading, making GAO’s report sound like a condemnation of Grants.gov, which it doesn’t appear to be to me. While Grants.gov comes in for some criticism in GAO’s report, it is not the root of all the…
S.2590 approved by Senate committee
The Washington Post reports today that S.2590 was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last Thursday. A fella from Forrester Research claims that it would be “feasible” but “a huge undertaking,” natch, primarily because of the political…
July 28, 2006
Summary of GAO’s grants streamlining report
As I posted earlier, GAO has released its second grants streamlining report. They surveyed grantees for this one, and found that many of the goals of P.L. 106–107 have not yet been met. (Hands up — who’s surprised? I thought so…) Here’s…
New GAO grants streamlining report
GAO just released its second report on grants streamlining. I’m digesting it this afternoon and will report back with a briefing later on. For now, here’s the link:
Grants Management: Grantees’ Concerns with Efforts to Streamline and Simplify Processes. GAO-06–566, July 28http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06–566Highlights…
July 27, 2006
A nice reminder
I went to a meeting today with some folks I’d never met before and we got to talking about the use of open source. They are in a government agency and are extremely enthusiastic about using as much OSS as possible. And…
S.2590 — Hearings and a ‘Doh!’ moment
Word reaches me that two NGP Partners testified at the latest hearings regarding S.2590, otherwise known as the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act”, which was amusingly titled What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You. Hoho!
And somewhat related is…
July 26, 2006
Congress stymies e‑gov progress. Again.
For the last four years, Congress has put funding for e‑government projects under increasing pressure. Jason Miller of GCN has the latest scoop on this year’s attempts by Congress to determine the precise benefits of e‑government initiatives, such as Grants.gov…
New contracts for government services?
GovExec reported yesterday on a recommendation that GSA create a new type of contract for services acquisitions, arguing that existing contracts are geared more towards buying goods. This will create a whole lot of change in government IT contracting, if it goes ahead,…
Implementing a federal funds awards database
I neglected to follow up my post about S.2590 so I’m going to fix that now. The big question about this and H.R.5060, which both propose the establishment of an online database of federal funding awards, is how such a database can…