Priorities

Today Sen. Warner continued his mission to highlight the work of ‘Great Federal Employees,’ those individuals who, despite receiving little recognition for their hard work, perform vital functions every day that make this country a better and safer place to live.  This time, Sen. Warner chose to recognize three Virginians working behind the scenes to make our government more efficient and effective.

First Sen. Warner spoke about the work of Timothy Gribben, Director of Performance Management at the Small Business Administration, and developer of SBA’s Quarterly Performance Review process now considered a best practice among agencies.  “Because of Tim’s commitment to transparency and accessible performance metrics,” said Sen. Warner, “the American public can now more clearly track the support provided to small businesses from SBA.”

Secondly, Sen. Warner recognized Department of Commerce Director of Performance Excellence Christine Heflin, who established the Performance Excellence Council to bring together leaders from across the department to exchange best practices.  “Because of her expertise,” Sen. Warner continued, “she leads performance management trainings across the department to educate staff on the benefits of data-driven decision making, the use of analytics, and performance improvement techniques.”

“Finally,” said Sen. Warner, “I would like to recognize Michelle Silver, who served as the program manager of the Bank Act IT Modernization Program.  Under her leadership, the program successfully modernized the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s IT infrastructure, which significantly improved the ability of law enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence agencies to access and analyze financial data to detect and prevent crimes.  And her management ensured that the program was delivered on-time and within budget.”

“Because of these people and many other hard working federal employees,”Sen. Warner concluded, “our country is safer and stronger. I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Mr. Gribben, Ms. Heflin and Ms. Silver, as well as government employees at all levels around the country, for their excellent work and their commitment to public service.”