Tuesday federal headlines – November 24, 2015

In Tuesday's Federal Headlines, GSA pledges to do a better job of meeting communities' development needs when planning new buildings, leases or renovations. The...

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive.

  • The General Services Administration envisions federal buildings as a way to reinvigorate local economies. The agency pledges to do a better job of meeting communities’ development needs when planning new buildings, leases or renovations. The first projects will be in Detroit; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Charlotte, North Carolina. In Detroit, GSA has bought an office building for $1. It plans to fix it up for 700 federal employees scattered around the city. That would free up other buildings in downtown Detroit for commercial revitalization projects. (GSA)
  • Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) wants to know what safeguards Veterans Affairs has in place to prevent fiscal abuse. He sent a letter to Secretary Bob McDonald asking how the VA is protecting federal dollars. This comes after two senior executives were accused of manipulating the hiring system to receive unwarranted benefits. Those two executives were recently demoted. (Sen. Tom Carper)
  • SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet is appointing four new members to the inter-agency task force on veterans small business development, all of which represent veteran service and military organizations. The task force is focused on increasing the number of veteran-owned businesses and the number of Americans those businesses employ. (PRNewsWire)
  • Several advocacy groups are calling on the FCC to recognize text messaging as a telecommunications service subject to protections of Title II of the Communications Act. Organizations such as Public Knowledge and Free Press are concerned carriers may abuse their discretion to block or throttle messages. (Public Knowledge)
  • The Office of Personnel Management’s online verification center for the 21.5 million cyber breach victims is live, but not open for the public to use just yet. OPM said  it’s testing the site internally before it advertises the link on its website. The link will be available in a few weeks after OPM mails more notification letters to breach victims. It’s sent about 13.5 million notification letters so far. The goal is to have all letters mailed by the first or second week of December. (Federal News Radio)
  • Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is asking the White House for a cyber deterrence policy. McCain sent two letters to the Obama administration asking for a clear cyber strategy. A growing number of lawmakers have called on the Defense Department to come up with a public policy. Those in favor of the policy say a public policy will act as a deterrent from cyber attacks. (Federal News Radio)

 

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