Yesterday morning, I attended a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing to listen to Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), provide testimony on the funds Congress will supply to his agency this upcoming fiscal year. I had hoped that subcommittee members would question Shulman over the deteriorating quality of the agency's audits over the past few years – especially those performed on corporations and wealthy individuals – and the insufficient level of services provided to those who claim the overly complicated Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Despite the absence of any of these inquires, there were two interesting exchanges during the hearing.

Following up on my previous week's post on DOD reform, the House unanimously passed its version of a bill for defense acquisition reform (H.R. 2101) last Wednesday. With the Senate version of the bill (S. 454) having already passed, both houses quickly moved into conference, as President Obama has asked that the legislation be on his desk before lawmakers break for their Memorial Day recess next week. With important differences between the two bills, the conference process will largely determine whether the final product helps create genuine reform within the Pentagon or merely provides lawmakers with another "accomplishment" to tout to their constituents when they return to their respective districts or states. As things look right now, the latter seems much more likely.

President Obama released more details of his FY 2010 budget request last week and I've been spending some time flipping through it today. I didn't have to flip far to find some encouraging news about how the new administration will tackle performance assessment over the next four years and what they plan to do with the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Front and center on page 9 in the most important volume in the budget release - the Analytical Perspectives - is a section called "Building a High-Performing Government." This gives the first details about administration plans to replace PART with a new performance system the administration refers to as a "performance improvement and analysis framework."

President Obama’s budget would continue to short change the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the chief regulator of common products like toys and toasters. According to a statement on the White House website, Obama will ask for only $107 million for an agency that has long been starved for resources.