Friday federal headlines – June 12, 2015

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows each day. Our headlines are updated twice per day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon — with the latest news affecting federal employees and contractors.

• A website set up to help feds affected by the cyber attack crashed due to high volume. The Washington Post reports feds got a blank screen when they went to the website and tried to create an account. Private contractor CSID will provide credit monitoring and other support services to employees affected by the breach. A CSID call center worker said the firm wasn’t anticipating so much website traffic so quickly. The site was down for about two hours yesterday. (Washington Post)
• A labor union wants more answers from the Office of Personnel Management on a cyber breach affecting millions of federal employees and retires. American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox is pushing OPM to be more transparent on details of the attack. AFGE believes hackers targeted OPM’s Central Personnel Data File. But unanswered questions remain about what exactly happened, what data was exposed, who’s responsible for the breach and how affected individuals will be compensated. OPM said it’s still investigating the incident and no more details are available. (Federal News Radio)
• The Senate blocked a cyber bill that would give liability protection to companies that share cyber data with the government. The vote was 56-40, just four votes short of what it needed to pass. Some lawmakers wanted to link the cyber bill to the defense policy bill. But other lawmakers are concerned the cyber bill violates privacy. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said opposing the bill lets criminal continue to steal American’s personal data. (Federal News Radio)
• A new algorithm is helping identity veterans with high risk of suicide. Scientists from the Veterans Affairs Department and National Institute of Mental Health use medical data from the Veterans Health Administration database. They look at data from 2009 to 2011 for patterns in predictors of suicide. They compare suicide risk to actual mortality rate. VA said the algorithm helps it target suicide prevention efforts to high-risk patients. (VA)
• The IRS has announced new steps to combat identity theft. It will share more data about how tax returns are filed with companies and states. The new rules will be in place by the next filing season. The IRS admitted two weeks ago that hackers stole personal information about more than 100,000 taxpayers. Identity theft cost the government $58 billion in fraudulent returns in 2013. (IRS )
• The Justice Department inspector general said U.S. attorneys failed to collect nearly $115 billion in debts owed to the government and victims of crime in fiscal 2014. The growing amount of debt collection cases has put strain on U.S. attorneys nationwide. The IG said the units within each office that are responsible for collecting that debt are short-staffed and occupied with administrative tasks. They also failed to coordinate with others who have overlapping duties. The department has tried to make debt collection a priority. (Justice Department)
• The Pentagon said a war on the Islamic State has cost $2.7 billion since the bombings began in August. That breaks down to about $9 million a day. The Air Force bears most of the cost because of daily combat and reconnaissance flights in Iraq and Syria. Special operations have totalled more than $200 million since August. (Federal News Radio )
• The House has passed a defense spending bill that would give service members a 2.3 percent pay raise, more than what President Barack Obama has proposed. The bill itself would cost $579 billion. The President has threatened a veto because some of that money would come from a war-fighting account. The White House has insisted that the bill lift the spending caps known as sequestration. Only 43 Democrats voted for the bill for the same reason. (Federal News Radio)
• The White House has whittled down the list this year’s prestigious fellows program. Those chosen will spend a year working for cabinet secretaries, senior White House staff and other top government officials. A number of finalists are active-duty military. Others come from the worlds of medicine, academia, business and law. Former cabinet members, including Colin Powell, Henry Cisneros and Elaine Chao are alumni of the program. (White House)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.