Monday federal headlines – June 22, 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.

• The company that the Office of Personnel Management hired to provide credit- monitoring for cyber attack victims is coming under scrutiny. Sen. Mark Warner (D- Va.) sent a letter to OPM Director Katherine Archuleta. He raised concerns about the company’s performance and about how OPM awarded the contract. Warner said federal employees who live in his state are complaining about 90-minute wait times on the phone. They also told him that they’ve received inaccurate and out-of- date credit-history information from the company. He said he’s not sure the company, CSID, has the experience and capacity to help around 14 million data-breach victims. OPM awarded the contract to CSID after holding the solicitation open for just 36 hours. Warner said that makes it looks like OPM steered the contract toward the company. (Federal News Radio)
• The Office of Personnel Management revealed a little bit more about the first data breach it announced earlier this month. It said the 4 million victims come from all branches of the government. At some point, their agencies sent their records to OPM for future retirement processing. Most agencies do that, whether as a matter of course or on certain occasions. The documents included service- history records, court orders and other records that factor into annuity calculations. OPM has not shared as many details about the bigger breach of its background- investigation systems. That’s thought to affect 14 million people. The agency said it is still determining the scope of that intrusion and expects to notify victims at some point. (Federal News Radio)
• It’s been a year since a patient health-care scandal shook up the Veterans Affairs Department. And the problem has only grown worse. The New York Times reports that the number of veterans waiting for appointments is 50 percent higher than it was a year ago. It also says the VA’s budget is nearly $3 billion short. It is considering furloughs and hiring freezes. The department plans to ask Congress to let it shift funds into programs that are running out of cash. The Times said the VA has made progress over the past year. Its health-care facilities offer twice as many appointment slots as VA officials had thought sufficient to fix the problem. But, they said, they did not foresee how demand would soar. (New York Times)
• Hit by complaints of slow service, the company handling credit monitoring on behalf of the Office of Personnel Management said it was adding staff. GovExec reports CSID officials said they’ve been nearly overwhelmed by the number of phone calls to the company call center. They’re coming from current and past federal employees concerned about the big OPM data breach. Spokesman Patrick Hillmann said each call takes an average of 10 minutes, so they back up fast. He said the company is also adding a call-back feature so people don’t have to wait on hold. ( GovExec )
• The new Pentagon press secretary is a veteran Washington journalist. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has tapped Peter Cook to be the public face of the Defense Department. Cook is leaving Bloomberg TV, where he’s the chief Washington correspondent. He will begin at the Pentagon in July. The position has been vacant since retired Rear Adm. John Kirby left in March. Carter indicated that he wanted a civilian rather than military spokesperson. (DoD)
• A congressional panel that oversees government operations is getting a new chief. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has lost his chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. The full committee’s leader, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), gave Meadows the boot after Meadows voted against the party leadership last week. Meadows is one of the most conservative Republicans in the House. He opposed fast-tracking trade legislation, and the GOP leaders did not like that. Chaffetz told Politico that Meadows is a good person and a valuable contributor, but he had to make a change. (Politico)
• The U.S. Park Police has replaced longstanding policy for how it treats pregnant employees. The Washington Post reports that now the Park Police follow procedures under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which requires accommodation of pregnant women only after the pregnancy hinders their ability to work. Under the old policy, women were required to tell Park Service supervisors the moment they became pregnant. The policy change comes in response to a lawsuit by former officer Renee Abt. She also received a $300,000 pain-and-suffering settlement. (Washington Post)
• The Defense Department has millions of square feet of office space in hundreds of thousands of buildings. Much of it is vacant and could be used by other federal agencies. But that rarely happens. The Government Accountability found DoD and the General Services Administration don’t share information about civilian agency needs and DoD vacant space. Auditors say Defense officials don’t tend to volunteer information about available space. And GSA Federal Buildings Service staff don’t check with DoD when looking for space on behalf of other agencies. Auditors recommend more collaboration. (GAO)

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