11 months after being found in violation of the Federal Hatch Act, Lurita Doan’s reign as Administrator of the General Services Administration ended last night when the White House forced her to resign. “I would rather get fired for something I believe in and a cause I was willing ...

Our vice president is beginning to resemble a Soviet-era bureaucrat.  His most recent foray into Supreme Court deliberations, as reported by UPI, shows that Mr. Cheney is working in the finest Soviet traditions.

Understanding Government flagged the news yesterday that the EPA lowered atmospheric ozone levels to 75 parts per billion despite EPA staff pushing for a 70 parts per billion limit. Today the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports that right before the EPA was to announce its ...

The Washington Post's Dan Eggen interviews a whistleblower at the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who says he was denied his customary bonus after he blew the whistle. Former ATF Deputy Director Edgar A. Domenach has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, an independent executive branch agency dedicated to investigating charges of abuse against federal employees.

The Washington Independent’s Arthur Allen reports that it can.  Allen interviewed more than a dozen scientists and employees at the CDC who say a constant turnover in personnel coupled with interference  by CDC director Julie Gerberding in science-based decisions has undermined their work.  Eight of ten top CDC ...

Stephen Barr of the Washington Post looks at the range of voting options open to federal employees in the Washington area, who will vote in presidential primaries on February 12.  There are about half a million active federal employees and hundreds of thousands more military personnel, federal retirees, and citizens ...

Columnist and author E.J. Dionne points out in the Washington Post that budget-balancing success in the state of Maryland shows politicians acting like adults -- cutting spending and raising taxes.  But he notes also that Maryland governor Martin O'Malley and the Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature have shied away from pushing a larger message about government's role in making society work.

When I lived in Moscow in the late 1980s, the foundation where I worked as a program officer had an office with Swedish furniture and a small kitchen with a buffet window that slid up and down like an awning.  For Moscow in those grey days, this place was positively chic.

A recent article by Stephen Barr poses some very daunting philosophical – and practical – questions about politics, civic involvement, and inherent citizen rights of government workers.

This story about the Head of GSA, Lurita Doan, and her Inspector General (IG) has legs as long as a giraffe’s.

What’s going on over there?

Not to dismiss the importance of objective, incisive program reviews, for which IGs are famous, why is there so much ...