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OMB DDM Ueland: ‘The time for action is now’

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2 weeks ago

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The Office of Management and Budget is readying a new President’s Management Agenda. While the timeline for release and the specifics are still to be determined, Eric Ueland, the deputy director for management at OMB, was clear on the PMA’s theme.

“The time for action is now for the federal government,” Ueland said yesterday during the Government Efficiency Summit sponsored by Government Executive. “We in the Trump administration need to deliver the change the President demands. You’ve seen what the President wants to change in his executive orders, his budget, his work to right size and reorganize departments and agencies. You’ve seen it in his appointments of Russ Vought and Dan Bishop to run OMB, neither of whom are wall flowers when it comes to driving purposeful change. You’ll see it in the forthcoming President’s Management Agenda, new executive orders, actions by secretaries and agency heads and certainly how we handle budget negotiations this fall.”

Ueland said his office is working to develop the PMA, conferring with agencies and getting feedback to help focus in on what are going to be key priorities on behalf of the President.

“We will have an announcement in due course,” he said.

While details of the PMA will be forthcoming, Ueland signaled a few areas of focus for OMB.

He laid out four priorities:

  • The reorganization and reform of the federal government.
  • Fixing procurement.
  • Restoring the Made in America effort
  • The smart use of technology in the 21st Century

Eric Ueland is the deputy director for management at OMB. (Photo: Jason Miller/FNN).

“[The President] wants action and he expects results, and because the time for talking is over and the time for action is now, we’re working hard to deliver every single day and sometimes well into the night,” Ueland said. “Too often in the past, the ‘M’ in OMB stood for mumble, muffle and muddle. Under President Trump and Director Vought, it now stands for action. We’re now the office for action and budget, not the office of inertia and budget, and ladies and gentlemen, watch us act.”

The reorganization and reform of the government is well underway with agencies reducing the size of their workforces and the consolidation or elimination of agencies or offices.

“Unlike his predecessors, President Trump came to town actually with a plan to address [the hiring, size, efficiency and accountability of the federal workforce] using every tool available to him. The President and his administration have eliminated hundreds of thousands of nonessential positions across all agencies and departments. We have new performance guidelines in place for employees, for accountability, delivering efficiency and achieving priorities, including a new schedule of policy career and extending suitability from pre-hire to post-hire,” he said. “When we hire into the federal government, we are putting merit first. We want to streamline hiring to 80 days from first offer to first sign on. We’ll get there by ending outdated processes and tearing down barriers blocking our nation’s best from joining the federal workforce dedicated to one mission: making America great again. And as we reduce and refocus the workforce, we need to right size the federal footprint too.”

Ueland said one key piece of the reform and reorganization effort is consolidating and modernizing federal human resources systems. He said agencies spend at least $2 billion a year to maintain legacy and fragmented systems.

“It’s a patchwork [of systems]. All of them are from 20 to 50 years old. They need a boatload of federal and commercial software products to operate, and are more and more fragile and subject to hacking — or even worse — every single day,” he said. “With our partners at the Office of Personnel Management, we’re going to fix that. Under OMB Senior Financial Management Leader Steven Billy, we’ve empowered departments to organize themselves free of special interest diktats and long expired bureaucratic empires that were ripe for dismantling.”

OPM has tried two times in the last three months to award a contract for a new HR system, only to bring in the General Services Administration for the third attempt.

43 federal buildings sold

Another piece of the reform and reorganization agenda is the selling off of federal buildings.

Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian said at the event that the government has sold 43 buildings since January.

“The story there is, it’s not the proceeds from the sales are great, but we have a lot of deferred maintenance. If you own a house or a condo, you know if your roof is leaking, the plumbing is broken, the electricity, it doesn’t get better over time if you don’t fix it. That’s kind of been the problem, 10 years ago deferred maintenance was like $5 billion across the portfolio. Now it’s $20 [billion] and I think that’s probably conservative,” he said. “We sold [43] buildings so far, that’s been $200 million in proceeds. The story there is also, we unloaded $200 million deferred liabilities.”

Ueland said the Trump administration isn’t going to hold off for years while Congress decides whether to fund building upgrades.

“Instead, the day we close the building, we’ll slap a for sale sign on it, as is, all legal buyers welcome. No reasonable offer refused because the time for talking is over. The time for action is now,” he said.

Another area OMB is pushing for action on is modernizing technology. Starting with reducing the number of federal websites. Ueland said in January OMB determined agencies hosted 7,000 websites, each with their own rules and own operations.

“We’re going to fix that. We’ve already identified and are fully underway, reducing the number of federal websites by 1,000 to bring the overall count down to 6,000. This 15% reduction is just a first step. We’ll continue to consolidate websites so when Americans use the web to find what they need, it’s going to be easier and simpler and much more direct,” he said.

Improve CIO effectiveness

Another area OMB will focus on is making agency chief information officers more effective and organized.

Ueland said many agency CIOs don’t have a common view of their “value proposition” and the best way for them to work inside their departments and across the federal enterprise.

“They barely even coordinate well with each other. They don’t share common missions, best practices or even technology solutions. This has to stop,” he said. “The federal government has spent too much taxpayer money on information technology to have spent too little time ensuring better results. OMB is going to break down barriers, ensure integration, and drive for outcomes to lend value to agencies and departments and ultimately to taxpayers. Otherwise, CIOs will end up as just another back office function where you think you go to find a replacement charger cord, complain about your failed efforts to connect with Wi-Fi and demand the latest handheld which, oh, by the way, will take way too long to procure. So we’re going to fix all that, because the time for talking is over. The time for action is now.”

Ueland added that one big question the Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia and his team are trying to figure out is the best way to organize and remove redundancies across the community.

“OMB is making sure that the authorities, both inside the department and across the entire federal government, are much clearer, much crisper, much better aligned and have quantifiable, measurable outcomes, so that when a department turns to a CIO, the CIO is actually able to deliver, and a secretary or director knows that with confidence, this can actually get done,” he said.

The post OMB DDM Ueland: ‘The time for action is now’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Gov. JB Pritzker Brokers Deal to Host Roughly 30 Texas Democrats in Chicago for Week-Long Plot Against GOP Redistricting Plan

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5 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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Credit: Staff Sgt. Aaron Rodriguez (Joint Force Headquarters – Illinois National Guard Public Affairs)

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is now playing host to roughly 30 rogue Texas Democrats who fled the Lone Star State to block a mid-decade redistricting vote backed by President Donald Trump and the Republican legislature.

The Texas Democrats, once again resorting to legislative cowardice, broke quorum just before a scheduled special session that would have cemented a new congressional map, one expected to create five new GOP-leaning seats.

In their desperate attempt to stop the vote, these runaway lawmakers fled across state lines to Chicago, where they are being sheltered and advised by none other than far-left Governor Pritzker himself, according to NBC.

This marks the second time in recent years that Texas Democrats have pulled this unconstitutional stunt. They tried the same tactic in 2021—and failed.

In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted the lawmakers, saying: “Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”

Last month, Paxton issued a stern warning, vowing to arrest any Democrats who attempted to play political games.

“If Democrats ignore their duty to their constituents by breaking quorum, they should be found and arrested no matter where they go. The people of Texas elected them to do a job, not run away and hide like cowards. Lawmakers must answer the special session call and pass the important priorities that the Governor has put forward.

My office stands ready to assist local, state, and federal authorities in hunting down and compelling the attendance of anyone who abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater.”

Now, far-left Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has brokered a deal to host 30 Texas Democrats in Chicago in a last-ditch attempt to sabotage a redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans.

These rogue Texas lawmakers fled the Lone Star State like cowards, deliberately breaking quorum to grind legislative business to a halt.

NBC reported:

The roughly 30 Democrats are expected to stay for the week in a plan brokered with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who had met with the Texas caucus late last month and has directed staff to provide logistical support for their stay. A news conference with the governor and Texas Democrats is expected later Sunday.

“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander. We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”

[…]

Politically, the move puts Pritzker at the center of a high-profile national fight. The governor, who is running for his third term in office, is also widely viewed as a 2028 presidential contender. He has implored Democrats to resist Trump’s agenda.

The origins of Pritzker’s involvement began when the governor gave a keynote address to Oklahoma Democrats in June. Pritzker met privately in a “robust” meeting with the party chair to talk about the Texas redistricting, according to a person close to the governor. When Pritzker later met with Texas Democrats, he assured them they could come to his state and find support, including finding hotels, meeting spaces and other logistical assistance.

The Texas Democrats, however, face the risk of a $500-a-day fine and even possible arrest for fleeing the state. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the measure in 2023, two years after state Democrats left the state for three weeks to block an elections bill from progressing.

“Democrats have got to stand up at this point and tell every individual in this nation, ‘This is not normal. This is not democracy,’” Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson told NBC News on Saturday.

The post Gov. JB Pritzker Brokers Deal to Host Roughly 30 Texas Democrats in Chicago for Week-Long Plot Against GOP Redistricting Plan appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Sydney Sweeney Is Revealed to be Registered Republican Amid Woke Backlash Over American Eagle’s ‘Good Jeans’ Ad

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5 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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In a stunning revelation that’s sure to infuriate the radical left even more, bombshell actress Sydney Sweeney has been outed as a registered Republican in Florida, just as she’s facing absurd backlash over a harmless American Eagle jeans advertisement.

The 27-year-old “Euphoria” star, known for her roles in hit shows and films, registered with the GOP in Monroe County in June 2024, according to public voter records viewed by The Gateway Pundit.

This comes at a time when left-wing activists are desperately trying to cancel her for an ad that playfully puns on “great jeans” and “good genes,” twisting it into some far-fetched eugenics conspiracy.

The controversy erupted last week when American Eagle launched its fall campaign featuring Sweeney. In the ad, the blonde beauty struts in denim while narrating about her family heritage: “My parents always said I got good genes… Great jeans look good on everyone.”

The ad’s slogan is a clever play on words, tying into the brand’s jeans line and celebrating confidence and personal style. But in today’s hyper-woke climate, nothing innocent escapes the outrage mob. Critics on social media, particularly from progressive circles, accused the ad of promoting “white supremacy” and eugenics, claiming the “genes” reference evokes Nazi-era ideals of genetic superiority, simply because Sweeney is white, attractive, and unapologetically feminine.

American Eagle fired back against the nonsense, issuing a statement that read, in part, “Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way.”

This isn’t the first time Sweeney has faced scrutiny for not toeing the Hollywood leftist line. Rumors of her conservative leanings have swirled for years, fueled by photos from a family gathering where people were seen wearing red MAGA hats. Sweeney never commented on the controversy.

Sweeney is no longer just a talented actress, she’s emerging as a symbol of resistance against cancel culture.

The post Sydney Sweeney Is Revealed to be Registered Republican Amid Woke Backlash Over American Eagle’s ‘Good Jeans’ Ad appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Motorcyclist Gets Taught a Hard Lesson After Performing Dangerous Stunts in Front of Police Officers (VIDEO)

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5 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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Credit: Pueblo Police Department

A motorcyclist got taught a hard lesson after deciding to perform stupid stunts while driving in front of police.

As KKTV reported on Thursday, a person in Pueblo, Colorado got busted by police last month after officers witnessed a series of reckless moves by him and two of his cronies.

These motorcyclists blocked traffic with their stunts, causing several community members to call the cops and complain.

As the video below shows, motorcyclists perform sets of wheelies and stand up on the seat, endangering themselves and others on the road.

Once the motorcyclists reach a stoplight, the Pueblo police spring into action. They gang tackle the motorcyclist closest to them, and the other two drivers speed off.

He is then put into handcuffs.

WATCH:

One of the officers angrily explains to the motorcyclist that he has a whole dashcam of him doing stupid things while driving on the road, endangering everybody.

Then the idiot receives news that he probably considers worse than an arrest: the police officer tells him they will tow his bike and put a hold on it for a nuisance.

“Oh no, please don’t do that,” he whines.

The policeman further explains that the bike will now go into storage, and the biker must pay the tow fee every day for six months.

“No, dude. Please don’t do this. It’s a minibike, I hardly ever ride that thing,” he whimpers.

The cop closes by telling the motorcyclist they are not trying to make his life harder, but that he put everyone in danger. Thus, he needs to suffer the consequences for his actions.

The post Motorcyclist Gets Taught a Hard Lesson After Performing Dangerous Stunts in Front of Police Officers (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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