Melissa Data

2 months ago | nextgov.com | Melissa Data |Natalie Alms

The Department of Government Efficiency is building a single, cross-agency database of sensitive information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies, according to new, whistleblower-informed oversight on Capitol Hill. The effort is “unprecedented,” said a Thursday letter the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep.

2 months ago | nextgov.com | Melissa Data |Erich Wagner |Natalie Alms

Just days after reports surfaced that administration officials listed more than 6,000 living immigrants as dead in a key Social Security database, President Trump signed a memo Tuesday that could give the green light for the agency to effectively strip hundreds of thousands of Americans of their legally obtained benefits.

2 months ago | nextgov.com | Melissa Data |Natalie Alms

The Trump administration has started a push to improve the technology used for environmental reviews and permitting in the name of greater speed and transparency. A memo issued Tuesday calls on the Council on Environmental Quality to work with the administration’s Energy Dominance Council, charged with upping domestic oil and gas production, to create a modernization action plan.

2 months ago | nextgov.com | Melissa Data |Natalie Alms |Ross Wilkers |Jessie Bur

President Trump issued two procurement-focused executive orders Tuesday that his administration says will simplify the way the government procures almost $1 trillion worth of goods and services annually by simplifying primary regulations for federal buyers, called the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The administration is directing the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to strip the FAR down to provisions “required by statute or essential to sound procurement” within 180 days.