Tuesday federal headlines – January 5, 2016

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

• The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested a briefing from Defense Secretary Ash Carter on his use of a personal email account for government matters. A letter from committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) requested information on the time period Carter used his personal email account for government business, the number of government emails sent regarding government business and what training Carter went through on the use of personal email accounts. The letter asked for the briefing by Jan. 8. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked for copies of the emails earlier this month as well. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to amend its regulations concerning copayments charged to certain veterans for medication to treat non-service connected conditions. A proposed rule would eliminate the formula used to calculate future rate increases and establish three tiers of medications based on how many sources it’s available from. Vets will save money if their medication comes from tier 1. Those buying from the other two tiers would possibly see their copayments go up.  VA said this rule will save most veterans money and decrease the possibility of fragmented care. (Federal Register)

• The National Institutes of Health IT Acquisition and Assessment Center is turning up the pressure on its government competitors by lowering its fee by as much as 35 percent. NITAAC is announcing reductions in fees to use all three of their governmentwide acquisition contracts. NITAAC said agencies will now pay 0.65 percent instead of 1 percent to use the CIO-SP3 GWAC.  Its most recent GWAC, CIO-CS, will see its fee slashed from 0.5 percent to 0.35 percent. NITAAC’s decision to lower its fees comes after NASA reduced its fees twice over the last few years to to use its SEWP contract.

• The Education Department is using a crawl, walk, run strategy in moving to cloud computing services. Education’s chief information officer is asking for a vendor to lead the agency through each stage. A request for information laid out a strategy that starts by putting Education’s public facing websites in the cloud. It continues to meeting business needs through platform, infrastructure and software as a service offerings. In all, Education wants vendors to answer 27 questions about cloud services and support. Responses to the RFI are due Jan. 15. (FBO)

• In the Oregon standoff over land rights, federal law enforcement doesn’t appear willing to re-take the occupied building by force. That’s a different approach than in the early 1990s. Then, military-like tactics at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas resulted in many deaths, including of federal officers. Investigations afterward caused law enforcement agencies to overhaul their strategies for dealing with potentially violent protesters, believing force can worsen the situation. (Federal News Radio)

• Agencies have 15 suggestions for setting up their own unmanned aircraft systems. A working group at the Homeland Security Department said agencies should consult their privacy and legal experts at every point in the implementation process, from the procurement to oversight stages. The group also suggested agencies set up security safeguards for the information they collect from drones. Some civil liberties advocacy groups said the suggestions aren’t specific enough, and don’t say enough about how long an agency can store that information and for what purpose. (Federal News Radio)

• A new proposed rule will allow Congress to keep a closer eye on Defense Department multi-year contracts. The proposed rule would require the defense secretary to certify certain conditions have been met before DoD can enter into a multi-year contract. Those conditions include making sure payments to contractors are not made before costs are incurred. The proposed rule also requires that contract does not provide for a price adjustment based on the failure to award a follow-on contract. (Federal News Radio)

• A new supercomputer designed to provide earlier and more accurate weather warnings is now online at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who worked to secure the $35 million in federal funding for the supercomputer, said the new supercomputer means NOAA computing capacity will be nearly four times larger, allowing the agency to provide earlier and more accurate weather and water warnings, helping to save lives and property.

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