How does a top White House official live? We know now about one of them: Steven VanRoekel, U.S. CIO, just bought a home for $6.9 million, designed by a prominent East Coast architect.
The Washington Post reports that the former Microsoft executive's six-bedroom home sits on 1.3 acres and has a pool, a separate outdoor dining room and several gardens. VanRoekel and his wife Carrie made the house purchase May 1. (To be clear, we're not suggesting VanRoekel, who had a lengthy career in Microsoft's upper ranks prior to his government service, bought the home on his government salary.)
Located close to Embassy Row and Rock Creek Park, the home was designed by architect John Russell Pope, whose most famous work in the early 1900s include the National Archives and Records Administration building, the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.
Posted by FCW Staff on May 04, 2012 at 12:11 PM2 comments
Federal telework is hot, but telework centers are not, according to speakers at the Telework Exchange Town Hall on May 2.
Some federal agencies had opened regional telework centers as alternatives to home offices. But the facilities, intended to blend the efficiencies of telework with the capabilities of an office, were not popular. The General Services Administration opened more than a dozen telework centers in 2007, but discontinued funding in 2011.
“Just because you build it, it does not mean they will come,” commented Peter Tseronis, chief technology officer at the Energy Department, a moderator at the event.
Posted by Alice Lipowicz on May 02, 2012 at 12:11 PM1 comments
When a fellow witness before a congressional committee sits by quietly without one question to answer and you’re taking the heat on a subject—say, sequestration of federal money—you don’t want to hog all the attention, right?
Danny Werfel, controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management at the Office of Management and Budget, must be a generous guy. He was under questioning by the House Budget Committee April 25 about the looming sequester and what the president planned to do about it while the Government Accountability Office’s Deputy General Counsel Susan Poling was asked essentially nothing.
Werfel, presumably wanting to share the fun, tried to direct a question about taxes to Poling.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) asked him about taxes in the president budget proposal, but he was out of Werfel’s line of sight.
“I can’t see you and I want to make sure you’re directing the question to me,” he told the congressman, while gesturing toward Poling.
It didn’t work.
“Well, I thought I’d give it a try,” he said.
Posted by Matthew Weigelt on May 02, 2012 at 12:11 PM0 comments