Thursday federal headlines – October 1, 2015

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows. 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.

• President Barack Obama signed a clean funding bill yesterday to keep the government open through Dec. 11 and avert a shutdown. The Senate passed the bill 78-20. The House followed a few hours later, passing the bill 277-151. The 10 week reprieve sets up another opportunity to negotiate an end to sequestration and a long-term 2016 budget plan. (Federal News Radio)

• Most agencies spend twice as much on contracts in September than any other month of the year. It’s part of the end-of-the-year push to spend every last dollar before the fiscal year ends. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said agencies often buy equipment in September they don’t need, out of fear Congress will see extra money sitting around and will cut appropriations the next year. Paul suggested agencies give their employees a cash bonus as an incentive to identify waste. (Federal News Radio)

• Martha Dorris, a well-known and well-respected leader in the federal IT community, is retiring after 34 years in government. Dorris is the General Services Administration’s director in the office of strategic programs. She will leave government at the end of October. Dorris was a 2013 Service to America Medal finalist for her work on USA.gov and GobineroUSA.gov websites. She plans to start her own consulting firm focusing on customer service and improving the customer experience. (Federal News Radio)

• Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the compromise the House and Senate reached this week on the annual Defense authorization bill is still riddled with serious problems, and he’s asked President Barack Obama to veto the legislation. DoD and administration leaders said their main objection is that the bill uses contingency operations funding to pay for tens of billions of dollars in ongoing priorities for fiscal 2017 instead of lifting the budget caps that Congress imposed four years ago. Carter called that a “paycheck to paycheck” approach to defense budgeting because it robs leaders of the ability to conduct long-term planning. He also objected to the fact that Congress continues to block Pentagon proposals to close military bases, eliminate older weapons systems and find savings in the military personnel system. (Federal News Radio)

• The military service chiefs and secretaries are poised to gain more acquisition power than they have had in 30 years. Lawmakers reported out the fiscal 2016 Defense Authorization Act. In the bill, service chiefs will have responsibility over their services’ acquisition programs. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the bill over how it funds parts of the military. (Federal News Radio)

• The Social Security Administration, together with its inspector general, said it will open five new cooperative disability investigation units. They’ll join existing units in identifying and preventing Social Security disability fraud in their states. The new CDI units open in Birmingham, Alabama; St. Paul; Raleigh; Charleston, West Virginia; and Milwaukee. Social Security called the DCI one of its most effective anti-fraud initiatives. (Social Security Administration OIG)

• Forty five Secret Service employees acted out of bounds in accessing and then disseminating records of Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). The Homeland Security inspector general said only four employees had an arguably legitimate need to look at the records. At the time, Chaffetz, the chairman of the House oversight committee, was conducting hearings on Secret Service misconduct. Agents revealed that Chaffetz had applied for a job at the Secret Service in 2002 and had been rejected. The IG said the episode reflects extremely bad judgment. He named Assistant Director Edward Lowery in particular. (Homeland Security OIG)

• Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Smith), who heads the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, wants more information regarding the investigation of an employee making methamphetamine at an NIST facility in Maryland. The committee asked for access records for the building where Senior Officer Christopher Bartley reportedly attempted to make the drug causing an explosion. NIST has declined to provide information up to this point citing an ongoing investigation by the Commerce Department’s Inspector General. (House  Science, Space, and Technology Committee)

• The Defense Department’s advanced research arm is trying to increase cybersecurity through analog signals. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking into using electromagnetic, acoustic and power fluctuations to confirm remote software is running. The analog signals would also check the status of the software. DARPA is planning on starting the project in April 2016. The program is expected to end in the middle of 2020.

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