Fedwire
WebGov portal expected by fall
With the backing of the President's Management Council, the General
Services Administration plans to have a portal for government interaction
with the public up and running by this fall. WebGov has been in development
for about two years, but it has been held back by various funding and technical
issues, such as the challenge of gathering links to every agency Web site.
But the council has said it will fund WebGov with several million dollars
through a "pass-the-hat" method or some other means, said Marty Wagner,
associate administrator of the GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy.
Senate beefs up tech defense
The Senate Armed Services Committee last week called for funding increases
in key high-tech defense programs, including adding $246.3 million to speed
development of unmanned aerial vehicles. In its markup of the fiscal 2001
Defense authorization bill, the committee also responded to the growing
menace of cyberattacks by adding $76.8 million to kick-start an information
security scholarship program and a security institute. Overall, the committee
recommended $309.8 billion in budget authority for the Defense Department,
a figure that's $4.5 billion more than the Clinton administration asked
for in its fiscal 2001 budget.
GSA holding online garage sales
The General Services Administration has hired American Management Systems
Inc. to set up an Internet auction site — GSAAuctions.gov — where used and
surplus property held by the Federal Supply Service can be sold to the public.
The site should cut government costs by eliminating traditional physical
auctions. It should also increase government profits by opening auctions
to a bigger audience, a spokeswoman for AMS said. The government sold $260
million worth of surplus property in 1999.