June 2, 2008
A summary of daily news relevant to the federal workforce produced by the Partnership for Public Service.
- Career Bureaucrat Rises to Prominence in Housing Crisis
- Union Criticizes OPM's Flexible Hiring Practices
- Federal Diary: A Departing President of Their Own
- Marine General Lays Groundwork for Unprecedented Change
Career Bureaucrat Rises to Prominence in Housing Crisis
The New York Times
By Rachel Swarns
The phone calls have been streaming into the Federal Housing Administration
for months now -- from White House budget officials, Democratic
lawmakers and the occasional cable television news producer -- all
asking for a few minutes with the man in charge.
That man is Brian D. Montgomery, the F.H.A. commissioner, a
ruddy-faced Texan who is so accustomed to toiling in bureaucratic
obscurity that he likes to joke that some people think he runs the
Federal Highway Administration.
Today, President Bush and
Democrats in Congress are all counting on the F.H.A. to lead the
national effort to rescue homeowners at risk of foreclosure. And Mr.
Montgomery, a longtime Bush loyalist who came to the job with little
housing experience, has gained prominence as an unexpectedly
influential official whose quiet efforts to modernize a stagnant agency
has won the respect of Democrats and Republicans alike.
"I didn't
take the job to be in the spotlight; I've been very passionate about
this," said Mr. Montgomery, 51. But with Congress considering
legislation that would vastly expand the F.H.A.'s role in the housing
crisis, even some of Mr. Montgomery's admirers are wondering: Is he up
to the challenge?
"He takes his job seriously and, to the best of my knowledge, he does not play politics," said Senator Patty Murray,
Democrat of Washington who is chairwoman of the housing subcommittee.
"But I have some serious concerns about F.H.A. and what it is likely to
be asked to do in the future."
Mr. Bush has asked the F.H.A to
help borrowers in crisis refinance into stable, government-backed
mortgages. By December, the plan, called F.H.A. Secure, is expected to
help about 500,000 families refinance. That is more than three times
the number of mortgages refinanced by the agency in fiscal year 2007.
Meanwhile,
Congress is moving legislation that will allow an additional 500,000
homeowners to refinance over the next five years.
The F.H.A.
insures mortgages for many first-time, minority and low-income
borrowers. It does not lend money directly but provides mortgage
insurance through private lenders.
Critics warn that the agency, which is overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, lacks the capacity to handle such an
extraordinary increase in business.
Housing
officials say they need to fill 300 vacancies by Sept. 30, when the
fiscal year ends. And they say they need even more staff to cope with
the new caseload from F.H.A. Secure. The housing bills under
consideration would allow the agency to borrow personnel from other
agencies.
In addition, the agency's computer systems are so
antiquated -- the average age is 18 years old -- that Mr. Montgomery has
joked that he is in the market for Fortran programmers. (To his
astonishment, a staff member told him the agency actually does need
experts familiar with Fortran, the computer language introduced in 1957
and now rarely used. Some of the agency's machines have been humming
along for 28 years.)
Senator Christopher S. Bond,
Republican of Missouri, said the jury was still out on Mr. Montgomery.
"We wish him well, but we're going to have to wait and see," he said.
Mr.
Montgomery has defied expectations since he left his job in 2005 as
secretary of the cabinet in the White House to head the F.H.A. He was
clearly an unconventional choice.
The blue-eyed son of a
Texas-born father and a Mexican mother, Mr. Montgomery came to the job
with a passion for politics and a self-deprecating wit. He quips that
he has "a face made for radio."
But he had little experience with national housing policy or housing finance.
He had handled planning, logistics and travel for the White House as
well as for Mr. Bush's gubernatorial and first presidential campaign.
He had served as communications director for the Texas Department of
Housing when Mr. Bush was governor.
Still, many Democrats and
housing experts initially dismissed him as an inexperienced caretaker
who would allow the agency to continue to wither in the face of fierce
competition from subprime lenders.
From 2002 to 2006, the
number of single-family loans insured by the F.H.A. fell to just over
300,000 from about 1.3 million as homeowners spurned conventional loans
in droves for their exotic counterparts. "You were kind of starting to
see F.H.A. fade into the night," Mr. Montgomery said.
But lawmakers and industry experts say Mr. Montgomery brought an unexpected sense of vigor to the moribund agency.
He reached out to Democrats in Congress and pushed to streamline
cumbersome rules that had driven some lenders away. In 2006, he allowed
banks to endorse mortgages electronically as opposed to sending in
stacks of folders for review. In 2007, he created an F.H.A. Web site to
allow lenders to more easily navigate the agency's rules.
He
has worked closely with lawmakers on proposed legislation to make the
F.H.A. more competitive by increasing loan limits and making the
process of buying condominiums less onerous, among other things.
"I made the decision early on," said Mr. Montgomery, who served under Alphonso R. Jackson,
the housing secretary who resigned amid a contracting scandal in April.
"I'm not going to go in there with partisan stripes on my sleeve."
For some Democrats, this was a pleasant surprise.
"Actually, I rather like him," said Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Housing Subcommittee in the House.
"He
stands up for F.H.A., and he had some strong views about how it should
operate, but he made compromises with us," Ms. Water said.
Allen
Jones, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said Mr.
Montgomery listened to their concerns. "He'll answer questions until
you don't have another one left," Mr. Jones, an executive at Bank of America, said.
There have been some missteps.
Mr.
Montgomery has criticized F.H.A.'s seller-financed down-payment loan
program, which has left the agency on the brink of insolvency. But he
initially supported the program, which allows home sellers to cover the
buyer's down payment with financial help from nonprofit companies.
Owners typically add that sum or more to the total cost of the house,
and the default rate has been two to three times that of conventional
loans.
Meanwhile, F.H.A. Secure has helped only 2,276
homeowners at risk of foreclosure, despite its ambitious aspirations.
Most of the program's participants are homeowners who have made their
mortgage payments on time.
In addition, H.U.D.'s inspector
general has criticized the agency's failure to consistently refer
potentially fraudulent loans to the inspector general and its failure
to weed out appraisers with expired licenses from F.H.A.-approved
lists. Some worry that the agency's expanding workload will exacerbate
such troubles.
Mr. Montgomery notes that he shifts course when
necessary. He changed his opinion on the seller down-payment loan
program. His agency has fine-tuned F.H.A. Secure to help more
struggling homeowners. And officials say he has taken steps to deal
with the problems identified by the inspector general.
"I think
he's been serious, and that's not something you could take for granted
under the Alphonso Jackson regime," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services
Committee.
In
fact, Mr. Frank said he was startled recently when someone reminded him
that Mr. Montgomery was a political appointee who had little housing
experience when he was confirmed.
"I'd forgotten that," Mr. Frank said. "He's been a serious advocate for the agency."
Union Criticizes OPM's Flexible Hiring Practices
Federal Computer Week
By Richard Walker
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), responding to
a recent report from Office of Personnel Management, has said the increased use
of hiring flexibilities in government is damaging to merit-based hiring
practices.
OPM's study, issued May 20, found that most government managers who use hiring
flexibilities say those techniques are more effective in producing quality
newly hired employees than traditional ranking and selection procedures. OPM
reported that the number of federal employees hired under eight special hiring
authorities rose almost 50 percent -- to 43,000 from 30,000 -- between 2004 and
2007.
Under one authority, the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP), new hires rose
147 percent, to 17,000 from 6,800. The total number of new merit-based hires
increased by less than 2 percent, to 240,000 from 236,000, during the same
period, NTEU pointed out May 27.
NTEU officials have been critical of the widespread use of FCIP and other
hiring authorities, arguing that they narrow the government's applicant pool
and create a perception of unfair and arbitrary treatment.
"OPM's report indicates that it is continuing to move away from a merit-based
competitive service in favor of more relaxed standards that allow a great deal
of discretion on the part of hiring managers," NTEU President Colleen Kelley
said. "This presents a danger that hiring decisions become based on factors
other than a candidate's qualifications, and that weakens the merit-based
federal civil service."
Kelley described FCIP as "the most egregious and fastest-growing example of how
federal agencies are departing from statutorily mandated competitive
examination and selection requirements."
FCIP lets agencies appoint individuals to two-year internships that provide
formal training and development assignments. Interns who complete the program
are eligible to be noncompetitively converted to the competitive civil service.
In January 2007, NTEU filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia against OPM alleging that FCIP rules undermine
competitive hiring procedures in the government.
Kelley said FCIP has become "the tool of choice to circumvent competitive
hiring practices" and that agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, the
Internal Revenue Service and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. use the
program to fill many entry-level openings.
A Departing President of Their Own
The Washington
Post
By Stephen Barr
Near the entrance to the Council for Excellence in Government, these words appear on the wall:
Leadership
Innovation
Participation
Results
Trust
That's
how the center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has defined
excellence in government for 25 years. But another word is likely to
dominate today's meeting of the council's board of trustees:
Transition.
Patricia McGinnis,
the council's president and chief executive, is announcing that she
plans to leave her positions this year, after 14 years as the group's
leader.
The transition at the council will come in a year when
the nation selects a new president, setting off a transition in the
leadership of the government, and at a time when the federal workforce
is undergoing a generational transition as baby boomers retire and
agencies try to recruit from the millennial generation.
As in
past years, the government's transitions will be a topic for discussion
and study by the council. The group provided orientation and leadership
programs for presidential appointees at the start of the Clinton and
Bush administrations, and it has sponsored surveys on how to renew
people's interest in public service and in working for the government.
"I decided that this was a good time for new leadership at the council," McGinnis said. "It is time for some new ideas as well."
Much
of the council's influence in Washington derives from its members.
Members must be private-sector leaders or executives who once held a
senior position in the government and are committed to helping the
government improve its performance. More than 30 people serve on the
board of trustees that guides the council.
"People talk endlessly
about using the 'best practices' -- that's the buzzword from the
private sector and other sectors to improve management in the federal
government," said Charles O. Rossotti, a trustee, businessman and former Internal Revenue Service
commissioner. "The Council for Excellence in Government is the go-to
organization for that, and that is a function of Pat's leadership."
John D. Macomber
chairs the council's board and is a former chairman of the
Export-Import Bank of the United States. He said McGinnis has built "a
very good staff, which is tough in a nonprofit." He added, "She has a
great entrepreneurial flair, coupled with a sense of what is right and
what is wrong."
During McGinnis's time as president, the
nonprofit's budget has grown from $1 million to $7 million, and she led
efforts to create programs and expand existing ones.
The council
produced a blueprint for electronic government, through a collaboration
with leaders in government, business and academia, that shaped e-gov
legislation on Capitol Hill.
It created SAGE (Strategic Advisors to Government Executives) programs,
where public and private-sector leaders can share successful
strategies. It organized "town hall" meetings across the nation that
permit residents to discuss homeland security, health care and economic
issues with federal, state and local officials.
McGinnis expanded
one of the council's most important programs, the Excellence in
Government Fellows. The program, which has more than 2,500 graduates,
provides leadership training and tips to senior federal managers.
The
fellows program is especially valuable because it gets mangers out of
their offices and exposes them to their counterparts in other agencies
and industries, Macomber and Rossotti said.
McGinnis has been
especially good at building relationships for the council, Rossotti
said. "She is the one who has been able to work with people across so
many dimensions."
Lee H. Hamilton, a council trustee and
former congressman, said McGinnis has "operated behind the scenes in
many ways," helping emphasize the importance of competence and
innovation in government. "Pat has given terrific leadership to the
council," he said.
Before joining the council in 1994, McGinnis
helped found the FMR Group, which concentrated on education, energy and
communications policies. She also has served in government, including
at the Office of Management and Budget, where she led the effort in 1977 to create the Education Department.
McGinnis
will stay as president until a successor is named and will then shift
over to the board as a trustee. She has no plans, except to take
advantage of the opportunity to delve deeper into certain issues.
Over
the years, McGinnis has encountered her share of chuckles about the
group's signature phrase -- excellence in government. "You don't have
to go very far from downtown Washington to have people say, 'Isn't that
an oxymoron?' or 'You have a lot of work to do.' "
But it usually
doesn't take too long to bring people around after a discussion about
changes that could lead to improvements in the government's
performance, she said.
"The aspiration to excellence is a good thing. And you never quite get there," she said. "No one ever gets there."
Marine General Lays Groundwork for Unprecedented Change
National Journal
By Elaine M. Grossman
James Cartwright has a passion for Pop-Tarts. Not the fruity
flavors, mind you: no blueberry and no strawberry. But bring this
Marine Corps general a brown sugar cinnamon pastry fresh from the
toaster and he's yours.
That might be useful advice for the
nation's next president. Cartwright is just nine months into what could
be a four-year term as the second-highest-ranking officer in the
nation. As vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the 58-year-old
Rockford, Ill., native has a powerful and unique role in determining
how the military invests its vast resources just as a new
commander-in-chief will be coming into office.
Whether it is John
McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton, or Barack Obama at the helm, the
Pentagon expects to undergo some changes. Yet, to a degree known only
by a few Defense Department insiders, Cartwright is already laying the
groundwork for unprecedented change at the one federal agency that
claims more than half the annual federal discretionary budget and is
frequently the central instrument of U.S. policy abroad.
A new
president of either party will be scrambling for funds and will likely
raid the Defense Department's $600 billion annual budget. The
Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, is widely
expected to cut expensive weapons-buying plans, although he has pledged
repeatedly to expand the number of ground troops and to make sure they
maintain high levels of readiness and equipment. An extended commitment
in Iraq, where the United States spends an estimated $12.5 billion a
month, could similarly force the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen.
John McCain of Arizona, to break a lot of Pentagon china just to make
ends meet. And he has never been afraid to break the military's
dinnerware before.
President Bush has shown little interest in
attempting any significant 11th-hour departures from his policy in Iraq
or initiating any newfangled way of doing business at the Pentagon.
Yet, just as the 43rd president began daydreaming about an extended
stay at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, he may have done his successor a
huge favor. In selecting Cartwright last year as vice chairman of the
Joint Chiefs, he chose one of the few senior officers in uniform today
with a record of conceptualizing vast bureaucratic reforms and, even
more important, actually accomplishing them.
Over the past
several years, Cartwright has gotten himself ready to catapult into the
post-Bush administration yonder, at a time when the U.S. finds itself a
weakened superpower amid a growing number of global competitors. This
naval fighter pilot has squinted to make out a tiny floating airstrip
that might logically become America's next defense strategy. In the
face of growing violent extremism, cyberattacks, U.S. satellite
vulnerability in space, and maybe even an antagonistic China or a
resurgent Russia, the general thinks he has figured out a thing or two
about how the mammoth Defense Department should prepare to counter
21st-century threats.
And so, Mr. Next President, meet Gen. James Cartwright, your change-agent-in-waiting at the Pentagon.
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