Today at 2:00 pm in Dirksen 562, there is a hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs regarding accountability and results in federal budgeting. The hearing will focus on the specific metrics and tools (e.g., the Program Assessment Rating Tool, or PART) used by the OMB to determine the effectiveness of federal programs, the advantages and disadvantages of using these metrics, and how information provided by these metrics is being used to increase effectiveness and accountability in federal budgeting. Witnesses include GAO Comptroller David Walker, OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson III, Research Fellow on government accountability issues Eileen Norcross, and Professor of Government and Public Administration at the University of Baltimore Dr. Beryl Radin. OMB Watch recently wrote an op-ed on PART, the President's tool for managing federally funded programs. The op-ed finds that FY 2006 budget cuts were made based on ideology?not on a measured, objective system of program evaluation.

It's been said before, and now Time magazine is saying it: nuclear facilities have not been secured against the possibility of terrorist attack or even foreseeable accidents, because the federal government isn't doing enough to make sure the public is safe. Time is subscription-only, so here's a glimpse via Agence France Presse: A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) document "raises serious questions about whether the government has set security requirements for nuclear plants too low and allowed nuclear plant operators to provide security on the cheap," Time reported.