Federal Drive

Thursday Morning Federal Newscast

Written by Ruben Gomez & Jane Norris Edited by Suzanne Kubota This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED: House and Senate negotiators agree to a b...

Federal News Network Staff

October 29, 2009 8:52 am

3 min read

Written by Ruben Gomez & Jane Norris
Edited by Suzanne Kubota
This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

House and Senate negotiators agree to a bill that would fund agencies thru December 18th. They’ve tacked a continuing resolution onto a $32-billion dollar Interior-Environment spending bill. The measure would fund a number of programs at fiscal 2009 levels. An existing resolution expires on Saturday, and the new spending bill goes to both Chambers of Congress for a vote.

Avoid problem contractors. That was the warning from President Obama and members of Congress to federal agencies earlier this year when awarding stimulus funds. But according to the Washington Post, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds went to contractors with troubled histories of work for the federal government. So far, 33 federal departments and agencies have awarded more than $1.2 billion in stimulus contracts to at least 30 companies that are ranked by one watchdog group as among the most egregious offenders of state and federal laws. Records show the contractors sold defective products, manufactured safety tests, submitted false travel claims and padded contracts with fraudulent fees. More information will be posted on ARRA funding tomorrow on Recovery.gov

Federal workforce experts gather in Washington to discuss what could result in major changes to the way your agency recruits and hires. OPM Director John Berry tells Government Executive that he’ll take ideas from Wednesday’s closed-door session to an interagency group working on hiring reform. The brainstorming event included policy makers, labor leaders and members of Congress. Berry wasn’t specific as to the session’s content, but he hopes to offer the president a template for reform by year’s end.

The secretive Pentagon agency that brought us the Internet is moving to a new location. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, broke ground on a new headquarters in Arlington County, just a few miles from the Pentagon. Virginia politicians fought hard to keep the relatively tiny agency from leaving the state, approving a $10-million-dollar state grant.

If you want contracts under the 8(a) small disadvantaged business program, listen up because the rules may be changing. The Small Business Administration has proposed revisions to the program’s income, size and family requirements. And that includes easing restrictions on family members of anyone who participates in 8(a). The proposal also sets the yearly income threshold for new applicants at 200-thousand dollars and puts fresh limits on Alaska Native Corporations that partner with large firms. The comment period ends on December 28th.

You can now buy greeting cards at about 1,500 Post Offices nationwide. Hallmark Greeting Cards are for sale at 30 locations in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The Washington Post reports the cards started showing up two weeks ago as part of a experiment for all post offices to start selling cards and sell other services. The goal is for postal retail sales to be boosted by 30 to 40 percent, helping to reverse major declines in revenue as the volume of mail has decreased.

The Veterans Affairs Department said it is looking for a temporary contractor to help get Veterans their GI education benefits. Patrick Dunne told Next Gov that the contract will help VA deliver education benefits to veterans as quickly as possible and minimize delays The post 9/11 GI Bill went into effect on Aug. 1st. The new law generated a large number of new applications, and caused back logs for the VA in getting those expanded education benefits to veterans.

More news links

Education Department hit over Web site access (FCW)

Feel the love for eGov as federal website satisfaction soars

Federal, industry reps call for national standards to report data breaches (NextGov)

IG: Combat-zone tax rules lead to errors (FederalTimes)

Northrop Grumman moving test site from Arizona to Utah

Agencies to expedite electricity transmission permits on federal land (GovExec)

Accused spy scientist due in court

Looking ahead on the health care debate

First openly gay US attorney begins job in Wash.

Coroner: Census worker died at tree in Ky. forest