Veterans Affairs dishes out millions of dollars in bonuses

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, a report for USA Today says the agency gave bonuses out to hundreds of thousands of workers, including some senior executives who would be fired later.

• Nearly 189,000 employees at the Veterans Affairs Department received more than $177 million in bonuses in fiscal year 2015. USA Today reports they include some senior executives who received bonuses prior to being fired for performance issues. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) called the bonuses “disgraceful”. He wants the Senate to pass legislation already approved by the House which would ban bonuses for VA executives for five years and give the VA secretary authority to recoup bonuses already rewarded. (USA Today)

• About 600,000 people who had signed up for credit monitoring services with Winvale CSID last summer will soon need to re-enroll with a new vendor. The Office of Personnel Management says only those impacted by the first of two cyber breaches last summer will need to take action. OPM is mailing notification letters to those affected. Letters will have directions for enrolling in services with the new vendor, ID Experts. Winvale coverage expires Dec. 1. (Federal News Radio)

• The National Treasury Employees Union wants lifelong credit monitoring for its members and for the Office of Personnel Management to stop storing member information online. The union is suing OPM for not listening to warnings that it was at risk of a cyber attack. (Federal News Radio)

• Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has reassured Secret Service Agents working for no pay that a remedy is in the works. Many agents have worked overtime beyond their salary caps during this election season. Johnson said both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have provisions in DHS appropriation bills to raise Secret Service salary caps during presidential years, including 2016.  (Department of Homeland Security)

• Armed chiefs don’t always see eye-to-eye, but when it come to the workforce, they all nod in agreement. The Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries all said they need better talent acquisition and retention. At a New American Security panel, they cite a list of challenges like budget uncertainty, cybersecurity and rising global threats. The secretaries said meeting them will require diverse thinking from both uniformed and civilian employees. And a willingness to emphasize mission over high pay. (Army)

• The Air Force has officially reduced the number of ancillary and computer-based training requirements. The service eliminated 15 standalone training courses and consolidates 16. It’s trying to reduce the burden of training and extra duties on its airmen to give them more family and professional development time. The reduction in training will begin at the beginning of 2017. (Air Force)

• Today is the last day on the job for the Army’s top acquisition official. Katrina McFarland, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, is retiring, effective today. She’s served in the Army post since only February, but has been in civil service for 30 years, starting as a Marine Corps engineer in 1986. Most recently, she was the assistant secretary of Defense for acquisition, and before that, the president of Defense Acquisition University. Stephanie Easter, McFarland’s principal deputy will fill out the Army’s top acquisition role for the final few months of the Obama administration.

• Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has joined Booz Allen Hamilton to conduct a review of the firm’s security, personnel, and management processes and practices. This comes after the FBI arrested a former employee of the firm for stealing a startling amount of classified material from the National Security Agency in August. (Booz Allen Hamilton)

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