Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast

Written by Jane Norris & Ruben Gomez
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

Will there be pay parity for civilian Federal Employees this year? The House passed an appropriations bill in July that would give civilian employees a raise of 2 percent which President Obama supports. Those pushing for a bigger pay hike are hopeful that the 3.4 percent raise for military service members, included in the final version of the Defense authorization bill, will help their chances of a higher raise. The Senate has yet to take up its appropriation bill, which includes a 2.9 percent hike. With no vote scheduled on the Senate version, GovExec reports it’s not clear when the issue will be resolved.

Replaced and reassigned. The embattled director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, April Stephenson has come under fire for the past 15 months after two damaging reports from the Government Accountability Office. The reports questioned the quality of contractor audit reports and the management of DCAA offices. Stephenson will be reassigned as of Nov. 9 to a Senior Executive Service position on the staff of Robert Hale, Defense undersecretary and chief financial officer. Patrick Fitzgerald, the Army’s auditor general, will serve as the new DCAA Director.

The White House prepares to release guidelines to reform contracting in your agency. Expect to see the document come out today or early Wednesday, when a Senate oversight committee reviews reform efforts. The guidance will come from the Office of Management and Budget, and it’ll likely cover outsourcing, competition and the contracting workforce.

The Obama administration is calling on federal agencies to cut energy consumption in their data centers as part of the broader effort to conserve energy in federal operations. The Federal Times reports an executive order signed by President Barack Obama requires agencies to begin measuring greenhouse gas emissions and set targets for reducing them. One way to get there will be to curb energy consumption in data centers the facilities that house computer servers and related systems. Data centers account for about 2 percent of all electricity consumed in the U.S. which is equivalent to the entire airline industry and eat up 100 times more energy than the standard office building.

The move from Arlington to Fort Meade for the Defense Information Systems Agency is on track. The head of the Agency Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett met with Maryland officials this week to discuss transportation and education opportunities for the federal workers who are moving. About 4,300 jobs will be placed at DISA’s new facility at Fort Meade between October 2010 and July 2011. It’s part of the BRAC relocation program.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has signed a deal to construct a 14-story, 362,000-square-foot office tower across from its headquarters in Bethesda, according to the Washington Post. The agency has hired 600 full-time engineers and some support personnel. This will bring employees in Rockville and Bethesda together in one complex. According to developers, the new $131 million building will be across the street from the existing NRC campus. It will be part of North Bethesda Center. Construction is scheduled to begin in March and the tower will take two years to construct.

The administration is rewriting the rules in hopes of making it easier for you to collect information from the public. The White House, via the Federal Register, calls for ideas on revising a rule to reduce paperwork in government. The 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act forces agencies to get public comment and federal approval before embarking on certain treks to collect information. But critics cited in NextGov say existing guidelines saddle web managers with useless burdens when they want to post online surveys and polls.

Delays in processing Veterans Education benefits may be shortened soon. Next month, the Veterans Affairs Department will begin using an automated tool to process claims for education benefits for veterans attending college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. NextGov reports that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki says that the VA still has a “a slight backlog” of claims for education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill, which led him to order emergency payments to veterans early this month, but the surge of waiting claims waiting has passed. The agency says they still are processing 30,000 certificates of eligibility for benefit.

The very wealthy may be getting a visit from the IRS soon. A new Internal Revenue Service enforcement unit targeting the very wealthy will help the tax agency decode partnerships, offshore trusts and other complex techniques used to hide income, according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Global High Wealth Industry group, will audit individuals with assets or income in the tens of millions of dollars, An IRS official said the group would begin work on these initial audits in the next month.

More news links

NIH funds a Facebook for scientists (FCW)

Report: Federal spending on info security will outpace overall IT spending (NextGov)

SEC, Homeland Security need Web backup, GAO says (Reuters)

Cooking classes teach feds the ingredients of a strong immune system (GovExec)

NOAA and FDA to Combine Resources on Seafood Inspection (NOAA News)

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