Thursday federal headlines – June 11, 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.

• Congress is starting to express frustration with the Office of Personnel Management in the wake of a massive data breach. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on federal management. In a letter, he demanded answers from OPM Director Katherine Archuleta. Lankford and others are concerned that federal employees’ data has been breached three times in the past year. The agency’s inspector general found last year that 11 out of 21 OPM IT systems hadn’t received a security audit required to keep them running. (Federal News Radio)
• Federal employees flummoxed by the recent data breach at the Office of Personnel Management might be able to get advice from a real person. Federal Times reports OPM is adding the option to talk to a live operator for people calling its toll-free hotlines. National Federation of Federal Employees President Bill Dougan said his members have been frustrated in trying to get information in part because they couldn’t talk to a live person. OPM is emailing affected feds. The email, sent by contractor Winvale, contains a PIN for accessing identity theft protection through the hotline. Employees should call 844-777-2743 or 844-222-2743. Feds outside of the United States should call 512-327-0700 or 512-327-0705. (Federal Times)
• The Secret Service hired some new officers for sensitive positions at the White House, but not all of them have proper security clearances. The Washington Post reports the Secret Service rushed to recruit new agents in light of several recent security lapses. But in that hiring spree, the agency didn’t vet all of the officers assigned to sensitive positions. Director Joseph Clancy told Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) about the problem, in a private conversation. A Secret Service official said the agency is working through a large backlog to issue the security clearances. (Washington Post)
• A whistleblower said the Transportation Security Administration is too lax in its airport screenings, Reuters reports. Becky Roering is a security official at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. She told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the TSA lets unapproved passengers go through Pre-Check security lines. About 1 million people have signed up for the Pre-Check program, which lets low-risk travelers go through faster screenings at U.S. airports. That enrollment is much lower than TSA expected. Roering said TSA hands out pre-check screenings “like Halloween candy.” (Reuters)
• A draft proposal would cut the IRS budget by more than $800 million. The House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services is planning to mark up that bill today. It gives $10.1 billion to the IRS next year. That’s $2.8 billion less than President Barack Obama’s request. He wants an additional $100 million to root out tax fraud related to identity theft. He also asked for $250 million more for taxpayer services. The National Treasury Employees Union said the subcommittee proposal is creating “damaging cuts” for the IRS, making it harder to meet its mission. ( Federal News Radio)
• One former hospital president found out how expensive Medicare fraud can be. Earnest Gibson III received a 45-year sentence from a Texas federal court. As president of Riverside General Hospital in Houston, he was convicted of defrauding Medicare to the tune of $158 million. His son got 20 years, and a co-conspirator received 12 years. They used the hospital to submit false and fraudulent claims for psychiatric services. Trial evidence showed many of the outpatients were ineligible, and most never actually received treatment. Gibson was also ordered to pay restitution. (Justice Department)
• You may be eagerly anticipating the arrival of Windows 10. But the Navy is sticking with the predecessor of Windows 8. It awarded a $9 million contract to Microsoft to patch and support Windows XP on Navy computers throughout the world. The contract will also cover Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP last August. Exchange 2003 support expired in 2013. But the Navy said that if all of the options on its support contract are exercised, work could continue until June 2017. The sole-source contract was awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego. (DoD)
• The Librarian of Congress will step down after nearly 30 years on the job. James Billington said he’ll retire on Jan. 1. He’s 86 and has 42 years of public service. The Library of Congress credited Billington with bringing it into the digital age, making research materials and databases available online. The Library’s collection has doubled in size to nearly 160 million items since Billington joined. (Federal News Radio)

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