Wednesday Morning Federal Newsstand

Written by Ruben Gomez and Tom Temin
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

Senators move today to help you hire and keep good contracting professionals. The hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will look into the problems civilian agencies have with recruiting and retaining acquisition workers. The FederalTimes reports the hearing comes a week after the White House ordered agencies to slash contract spending by seven percent over the next two fiscal years.

The White House hones in on your agency’s performance goals today. The Office of Management and Budget is helping agencies tweak and implement new targets designed to create what OMB calls “high-powered government.” Government Executive reports that agencies submitted the goals in response to an OMB directive aimed at improving the quality of government service.

27-thousand Commerce workers fall prey to possible identity theft. An employee An employee with the National Finance Center, which “handles payroll and personnel matters for the Commerce Department and several other government agencies”, emailed an unecrypted spreadsheet with personal information to a co-worker. The Washington Post reports the department is setting up data monitoring to watch for signs of actual identity theft.

Stimulus spending has been more talk than action so far, according to the Wall Street Journal. Infrastructure projects like roads and bridges are moving slowly and with many not underway before the summer construction season ends. Only about one percent of the money overall is out the door. Federal Transit Administration has spent about 6 percent of the $8.4 billion it received. The Coast Guard has decided to spend its money on four bridges, but adds the money “won’t transfer hands for a while.”

If electric cars are the future, the Obama administration wants the batteries to be U.S. made. Vice President Joe heads to Detroit today to announce battery companies who are winners of $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funds. The Wall Street Journal reports representatives from General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have been asked by the Obama administration to provide electric cars as background props for the announcement.

New media might be taking over the government, but not at the Marine Corps. The brass there have issued orders banning the use of Marine Corps network for logging onto Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This ban comes as the Pentagon is reviewing the use of government computers for social networking sites because of security concerns.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has promoted the fact that the Ford Focus tops of the list of the 157,000 new cars purchased under the federal cash trade-in program. Still, Japanese nameplates are dominating the trades. After the Ford, best sellers have been the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius and Toyota Camry. Eight out of ten clunkers being turned-in are sport-utility vehicles.

The Transportation Secretary Tuesday also announced plans to hold a summit on “distracted driving” which mainly means the growing problem of people sending text messages while behind the wheel. The meeting, which is tentatively scheduled to take place in September, will give safety experts, academics, elected officials, the police and others an opportunity to discuss legal and policy changes. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood linked the drunken driving and distracted driving issues in his statement announcing the meeting.

Metro could get something new: federal oversight. Peter Rogoff, the new head of the Federal Transit Administration, pointed out yesterday that his agency is prohibited by law from establishing national safety standards, conducting federal inspections or requiring specific operating practices for the local and regional transit agencies. FTA’s main role is primarily to make grants. But, he said, “The new administration finds this unacceptable and we expect to propose reforms.”

One ping only. The Pentagon finds two Russian attack subs patrolling the international waters off the East Coast. The subs have lingered for several days — their intentions unclear. Defense sources tell the AP the subs have not done anything to provoke military concerns.

Other Stories We’re Following

Homeland security chief: Flu will get jump on vaccine (USAToday)

VA managers underreport contract actions on ‘slow’ system (FederalTimes)

NASA hires Qwest to upgrade its network

Health IT exec Todd Park chosen HHS’ CTO (FCW)

High-tech Northrop Grumman center to fight cybercrime (UPI)

Vendors worry posting of contracts will expose proprietary data (NextGov)

FCC wants help on universal broadband (FCW)

Seattle postal worker charged in theft; $208, 307 check deposited (Seattle Times)

John Quincy Adams tweeting thanks to Mass. society

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