Meet the new chief scientist at the government’s premier oversight agency

The Government Accountability Office, the chief oversight arm of Congress , has a new chief scientist. He joins the agency after having been chief scientist at Noblis, a nonprofit research and consulting institute with many federal clients. For more, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin  spoke with Dr. Sterling Thomas. Interview Transcript: Tom Temin Well, first of all, why the jump from the private, nonprofit sector into government in the congressional branch? Sterling Thomas Yeah, it was a tough decision, actually. I’ve had a nice, long and very wonderful career at…

Read More...

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Threatens DHS Chief Mayorkas With Impeachment

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday from the border in El Paso, Texas, that the House’s new Republican majority will launch an impeachment inquiry into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. McCarthy, R-Calif., first called for Mayorkas, appointed by President Joe Biden, to resign to avoid impeachment. “Our country may never recover from Secretary Mayorkas’ dereliction of duty,” McCarthy said, adding: This is why today I am calling on the secretary to resign. He cannot and must not remain in that position. If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans…

Read More...

Survey: Half of federal chief data officers are unclear about responsibilities

Chief data officers in federal agencies have been in the government for a long time, but that doesn’t mean they are clear on their responsibilities. That’s according to a recent survey of CDOs conducted by the Data Foundation. The chief data officer role in federal agencies was established in 2018 by an act of Congress. In the four years since, the Data Foundation has conducted surveys of the people who fill these roles responsible for data governance. This year, the survey sponsored by Guidehouse found that while CDOs tend to…

Read More...

6 Takeaways as House Republicans Accuse Homeland Security Chief of ‘Intentional’ Border Crisis

House Republicans pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for answers Thursday as every sign appeared to point to a rising surge of illegal immigrants trying to cross the southern border.  According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents last month logged over 221,000 “encounters” with illegal aliens along the border, a 33% jump from February.     In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Mayorkas argued that the situation at the border is under “operational control,” as the law requires. Republicans on the committee repeatedly rejected this claim, pointing to the huge…

Read More...