President’s FY13 Research and Development Budget Released
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has responsibility, in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for advising the President on the Federal Research and Development (R&D) budget and shaping R&D priorities across those Federal agencies that have significant portfolios in science and technology. OSTP also has responsibility—with the help of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), which is administered out of OSTP—for coordinating interagency research initiatives. It is OSTP’s mission to help develop and implement sound science and technology policies and budgets that reflect Administration priorities and make coordinated progress toward important national policy goal.
OSTP is pleased to release the following information on the science, technology, innovation, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education components of the President’s FY 2013 Budget. Click here for webcast of budget briefing and PDF of R&D Budget.
The full President’s FY 2013 budget can be found here.
Related articles
- President’s FY13 Budget Release Info Posted for DOE, NOAA, NSF (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
- Analysis of R & D Investments in FY 2012 Appropriations Bill (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
OMB Paperwork Reduction Act & Information Collection Budget for FY 2010
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA),8 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to report to Congress on the paperwork burden imposed on the public by the Federal Government and on efforts to reduce that burden. For over 30 years, OMB has complied with this requirement by issuing an Information Collection Budget (ICB). The 2011 ICB reports on the paperwork burden imposed on the public during fiscal year (FY) 2010 and explores other issues with respect to implementation of the PRA. The 2011 ICB is available on OMB’s website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_infocoll/
Related articles
- OMB Extends Ban On New Federal Websites (informationweek.com)
E-Gov: Performance Measures for Projects Aimed at Promoting Innovation and Transparency Can Be Improved
GAO-11-775 September 23, 2011
Summary: Congress enacted the Electronic Government (E-Gov) Act in 2002 to promote better use of the Internet and other information technologies (IT), thereby improving government services for citizens, internal government operations, and opportunities for citizen participation in government. Among other things, the act established the E-Gov Fund to support projects that expand the government’s ability to carry out its activities electronically. The act also created the Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Administrator of this office is to assist the OMB Director in approving projects to be supported by the E-Gov Fund. The General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for administering the fund and notifying Congress of how the funds are to be allocated to projects approved by OMB. GAO was asked to (1) identify and describe the projects supported by the E-Gov Fund, including the distribution of fiscal year 2010 funds among the projects and their expected benefits; and (2) for selected projects, identify their progress against goals. To do this, GAO reviewed project and funding documentation, analyzed project goals, and interviewed agency officials. Read More…
Open Government and the National Plan | The White House
….the United States will produce a plan that builds on existing initiatives and practices. The plan will be released when the Open Government Partnership is formally launched on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September.
As part of the Open Government Initiative, we have benefited from knowledgeable and constructive input from external stakeholders with strong commitments to the principles of open government. The list is long and continues to grow.
We have initiated consultations about the Open Government Plan, beginning with a number of meetings with key external stakeholders, and our consultation is now moving to a new phase in which we seek ideas through this platform, in response to specific questions that we raise through a series of blog posts. We will have a final meeting with stakeholders as we finalize our plan.
Today, we are asking for your thoughts on ideas related to two of the key challenges – improving public services and increasing public integrity:
- How can regulations.gov, one of the primary mechanisms for government transparency and public participation, be made more useful to the public rulemaking process? OMB is beginning the process of reviewing and potentially updating its Federal Web Policy.
- What policy updates should be included in this revision to make Federal websites more user-friendly and pertinent to the needs of the public? How can we build on the success of Data.Gov and encourage the use of democratized data to build new consumer-oriented products and services?
Please think about these questions and send your thoughts to opengov@ostp.gov. We will post a summary of your submissions online in the future. Your ideas will be carefully considered as we produce our National Plan and continue to engage with you over the next month in future posts on this blog. Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Cass Sunstein is the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
For full text of the article, visit Open Government and the National Plan | The White House.
Related articles
- White House: An Invitation to Our Latest Open Innovation Ecosystem: Energy.Data.Gov (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
- NASA Launches New Open Government Blog (livescience.com)
- New federal CIO wants to close “productivity gap” between private sector, government (arstechnica.com)
- Open Government to Solve Problems: Meet Champions of the Open Innovation Movement (whitehouse.gov)
Report: National Academy of Public Administration’s Forum on Place-based Public Management – All Points Blog
by Joe Francica, Directions Magazine, Monday, May 23, 2011
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in Washington, DC convened a forum on Place-based Public Management today [May 20, 2011]. The event featured several key government policy experts that commented on placed-based initiatives, a key priority of the Obama administration. … The panel of experts was facilitated by Scott Fosler, Lipitz Senior Fellow from the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise and the School of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, and a past president of NAPA. …
For full text of the article, visit Report: National Academy of Public Administration’s Forum on Place-based Public Management – All Points Blog.
Additional Resources
- NAPA Forum Meeting Notes
- Podcast: How much does Federal Policy Really Impact Geospatial Technology Use?
- OMB Memo: Developing Effective Place Based Policies for the FY2012 Budget
- NAPA Forum on Place-Based Public Management (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
- Place-Based Policies: Think “Where” First, Not Last (geodatapolicy.wordpress.com)
Hearing: Examining the President’s Plan for Eliminating Wasteful Spending In Information Technology
SENATE HEARING
Examining the President’s Plan for Eliminating Wasteful Spending in Information Technology
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Dirksen Senate Office Building, room SD-342
Witnesses
Panel 1
- Mr. Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officier and Administrator for Electronic Government and Information Technology, Office of Management and Budget
- David McClure, Associate Administrator, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, U.S. General Services Administration
- Mr. David Powner, Director of Information Technology Management Issues, Government Accountability Office
Panel 2
- Mr. Stephen O’Keeffe, Founder, Meri Talk Online
- Rishi Sood, Vice President, Gartner Incorporated
- Al Grasso, President and Chief Executive Officer, MITRE Corporation
To watch the hearing on video, visit: United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs : Hearings.
Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on NASA Budget
Realizing NASA’s Potential: Programmatic Challenges in the 21st Century
Tuesday, Mar 15 2011 2:30 PM, Russell Senate Office Building – Room 253, Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announces the following full committee hearing titled, Realizing NASA’s Potential: Programmatic Challenges in the 21st Century. Witnesses include: Mr. Douglas R. Cooke Associate Administrator, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate; Mr. William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate; Mr. Leland D. Melvin, Associate Administrator, Education; Dr. Jaiwon Shin, Associate Administrator, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate; Dr. Edward J. Weiler, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate; Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr., Associate Administrator, Mission Support Directorate.
Two High-priority Climate Missions Dropped from NASA’s Budget Plans
By Turner Brinton, Space News, February 25, 2011
WASHINGTON — Even though NASA’s Earth science budget is slated to rise next year, the U.S. space agency has been ordered by the White House to shelve a pair of big-ticket climate change missions that just last year were planned for launch by 2017. With U.S. President Barack Obama under pressure to rein in federal spending, the White House eliminated funding for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) and Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) missions, Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs at NASA’s Earth Science Division, said in a Feb. 24 interview. The multiyear budget plan NASA sent Congress a year ago called for spending $1.2 billion between 2012 and 2015 to develop CLARREO and DESDynI, two of the four top-tier missions recommended by the National Research Council’s 2007 Earth Science decadal survey. …
For full text of the article, visit: Two High priority Climate Missions Dropped from NASAs Budget Plans | SpaceNews.com.
Congressional Research Service Questions Open Government Initiative
CRS Questions Open Government Initiative
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 15
February 14, 2011Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
The Congressional Research Service took a decidedly skeptical view of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative in a recently updated report (pdf). The report called into question not only the implementation of the Administration’s transparency policy but also its underlying rationale. “Arguably, releasing previously unavailable datasets to the public increases transparency,” the report granted. “The new datasets offer the public more information than was previously available, making the particular issue area more transparent. But this type of transparency does not give Congress or the public much insight into how the federal government itself operates or executes policies,” the CRS report said. But even bona fide transparency may not be altogether positive, the CRS report suggested. ”…Increased participation may increase trust in the federal government while concurrently reducing the speed of government action. Additionally, increased government transparency may prompt security and privacy concerns.”
For full text of the Secrecy News article, click here.
The bulk of the CRS report was written last year, but it was updated last month. See “The Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative: Issues for Congress,” January 28, 2011.
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Disclaimer: This is a personal blog of links to relevant news, events, and reports, provided for educational purposes only. The opinions and views contained therein are those only of the authors of the original articles. These opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the editor of this blog; the Woodrow Wilson Center; the Science and Technology Innovation Program; its staff, scholars, or interns.
