The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear modernizing the federal retirement system. Director John Berry says the new plan includes hiring a someone to lead the project. OPM will focus first on automating records for people who will retire in the next decade. They’ll also automate commonly used retirement calculations to speed things up. The new leader could be in place within the next few months.
Guns, knives and other dangerous items into federal buildings are being smuggled into federal buildings – by investigators. The Government Accountability Office today will release a report showing that security guards failed to detect the items more than half the time. Federal Times reports the guards work as contractors for the Federal Protective Service which conducted the tests. Today, the House Homeland Security Committee will explore the idea of making more of those guards federal employees.
The fate of federal spending is uncertain: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is skeptical Congress will pass a budget resolution this year. Hoyer, cited in Congress Daily, says that’s because it’s an election year. The current federal budget year ends in September. And if Congress doesn’t pass a new one, they’ll need to approve temporary spending to avoid disruptions in government services.
The Office of Personnel Management will allow the Defense Department to waive time-in-grade requirements for employees moving from the National Security Personnel System to the General Schedule. The goal is to avoid penalizing workers coming into a GS grade that otherwise would carry a time-in-grade restriction. The waiver applies to those moving to positions in Grade 5 or higher. According toi GovExec, the waiver was outlined in a letter included in a new DOD handbook on NSPS transition.
Agencies will have broad discretion to force contractors to use union contract provisions, under procurement rules made final yesterday. Project labor agreements would apply to construction contracts worth more than $25 million. The agreements let agencies insist on labor-approved wages even for workers who don’t belong to a union. The rules, revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulations, carry out an executive order the Obama administration issued in February, 2009.
The General Services Administration’s web site for buying cloud computing services, Apps.gov, has generated hundreds of thousands of page views, but very few sales. Katie Lewin, GSA’s program manager for cloud computing, says she has ordered vendors to improve software descriptions on the site. Plus, GSA will add an informational portal to give agencies sample cloud agreements and business cases. Lewin outlined these and other apps.gov improvements at the IRMCO conference yesterday.
A lawsuit accuses the Census Bureau of systematic discrimination against minorities in hiring workers for the 2010 count. The suit claims Census unlawfully screened out minorities by requiring applicants to provide court documents related to an arrest, whether or not it resulted in a conviction. It also claims the Census Bureau improperly excluded applicants who had been convicted of minor offenses. The Wall Street Journal reports the class-action suit was filed by a New York law firm plus seven public interest groups.
A computer error prevented the West Virginia coal mine where 29 workers died in an explosion last week from receiving a warning letter about safety violations. MSHA oficials say the letter would have demanded that the operator improve conditions in 90 days. Still, they say the delay did not have an impact on the disaster. The explosion will come under scrutiny in the Senate on April 27th when a congressional committee will hold a hearing on the accident, which could mark the first public appearance of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship to discuss the explosion. MSHA district manager Norman Page who oversaw Upper Big Branch mine inspections was recently named to lead the investigation. The Washington Post reports that former regulators and industry experts said MSHA should have chosen someone else to investigate last week’s accident in West Virginia, the deadliest in a quarter-century.
More news links
Obama to unveil vision for space program (CNN)
Wash. sues to stop feds from abandoning Yucca site
Opening statements begin in Hawaii spy trial
Study: Frequent password changes are useless (YahooNews/BostonGlobe)
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Coming up today on The Daily Debrief:
** During snowmageddon, did you telework? How about during the nuclear security summit? GSA is looking to be a model of how to telework, but they’ve discovered that they don’t have the infrastructure in place. What does it all mean? We’ll hear from GSA’s Casey Coleman.
** And a new survey looks at how people look at cyber-security — and what it means for your cyber efforts.
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