This past Saturday evening, the Senate took a break from considering health care insurance reform to confirm Daniel Gordon to be the next administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). President Obama nominated Gordon on Oct. 2. A former deputy general counsel of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Gordon will face several challenges as soon as he begins his tenure.

Yesterday, OMB Watch submitted comments on the proposed Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), the new contractor performance database called for under last year's National Defense Authorization Act. Our comments focused on three areas: data quality and display; database training for contracting officials; and public access to the database. Look for a more in-depth treatment of the proposed database and the comments we supplied in next week's Watcher.

I blogged yesterday about a new task force that was recently created within the Senate Budget Committee that will focus on government performance issues. The task force (SBCTFGP?) got things started this morning with its first hearing, where Jeffrey D. Zients, the Deputy Director for Management and Chief Performance Officer at Office of Management and Budget testified along with Sir Michael Barber from McKinsey & Company and Dr. Paul Posner from George Mason University.