After clearing the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Jeffrey D. Zients was approved by the full Senate as the government's first-ever Chief Performance Officer.  In addition to his CPO duties, Zients will also serve as Deputy Director of Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

In a June 11 memo, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Peter Orszag outlined the process for executive branch agencies to submit their FY 2011 budgets. According to the memo, the White House and OMB will solicit goals for each agency from the heads of the respective executive departments. Additionally, the memo outlined procedures for government agencies to reform their hiring processes and improve employee satisfaction and wellness. It is too early to discern the impact of these procedures, but the tone of the memo seems markedly different from those of the Bush administration on these matters.

As usual, Stan Collender makes much sense.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released an issue brief that outlined some of the data it used to estimate the effect of the 2008 tax rebates.  Given the debate over the true effect of these rebates, the CBO clearly felt that it needed to provide some detail about its methodology.