Help Wanted: Fed Govt. Needs 600K New Workers

Tasks federal agencies with trimming the fat in four other areas, too

(NEWSER) - If you happen to be sipping from a promotional coffee cup bestowed on you by a federal agency, hang on to it: You might not be getting a new one anytime soon. As part of his "We Can't Wait" campaign, President Obama will today announce his latest effort: slashing waste. The president will sign an executive order tasking federal agencies with reducing spending by 20% in five areas that have been identified by a Joe Biden-helmed task force as particularly fatty: travel, technology, printing, autos, and swag. USA Today and Politico dig into the nitty gritty: More»

Executive order requires federal agencies to reduce waste, conserve energy

(NEWSER) - Federal agencies have until 2020 to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 28% under an executive order President Obama signed today. The order also calls for improvements in energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste reduction. "As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient," Obama said before signing the order. More»

$102M in painfully obvious cuts shows how outdated gov't is

(NEWSER) - A short while ago, President Obama called on his Cabinet to make budget cuts in their departments totaling $100 million. They came up with $102 million, but some of the cuts were so obvious one wonders why it took a presidential edict to elicit them, the Wall Street Journal notes. They show how "unbelievably outdated" the government is, adds a watchdog:

• The Justice Department is printing on both sides of paper, saving an estimated $573,000 through fiscal 2010.
• Homeland Security will email documents more often, instead of printing them, saving $318,000.

Ex-Bushie: Media won't call White House on its unmeasurable metric

(NEWSER) - President Obama confidently declared yesterday that the stimulus plan had already “saved or created” 150,000 American jobs and would “save or create” another 600,000 by this summer. Which is pretty surprising, former Bush official William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal, because the economy’s lost nearly 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus passed. But that’s the magic of the “saved or created” metric, which doesn’t actually measure anything. More»

Federal workforce could expand by 100-250K, experts say

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s ambitious budget and stimulus plans will require the government to hire scores of new workers, the Washington Post reports. Analysts put the number between 100,000 and 250,000 spread among various agencies, the biggest expansion of the federal workforce since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society days. Some agencies are already planning hiring initiatives; Veterans Affairs, for example, expects to add 17,000 to the payroll. More»