Wednesday federal headlines – December 16, 2015

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

• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) took to the Senate floor to voice support for the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2015.  Not everyone was convinced though, after the bill’s proponents spoke, the bill was blocked with scant explanation by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Johnson joined Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in voicing disapproval of the blockage. (Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants the Department of Homeland Security to search social media websites and publicly available information on prospective foreign travelers or immigrants seeking to enter the United States. McCain said he wants this new check because of reports that Tashfeen Malik, one of the San Bernardino attackers, passed three background checks to obtain a U.S. visa, despite having made statements in support of violent Islamic extremism on social media. DHS does not routinely review social media platforms as part of its background check process. (Sen. John McCain)

• NIST released a report titled “Trusted Geolocation in the Cloud: Proof of Concept Implementation.” It describes a plan to address challenges with infrastructure-as-a-service cloud computing technologies and geolocation. The agency intends for it to act as a blueprint for the general security community to improve the security of visualized infrastructure cloud computing technologies by enforcing geolocation restrictions. (NIST)

• Hewlett Packard Enterprises and Experts inc., want the D.C. district court to toss eight lawsuits against them out regarding the mass shooting at the Navy Yard in 2013. Law 360 reports the companies said they are not liable for the shooting by Aaron Alexis that killed 12 people, because his previous troubling behavior gave no indication he might turn violent or that they should pull his security clearance. (Law 360)

• The Department of Defense has released the 2016 Basic Allowance for Housing rates. Allowance for housing rates will increase by an average of 3.4 percent, or approximately $54 a month. There is a downside though, as 2016 will mark the second phase of a five-year plan in which service members receiving BAH will pay 2 percent of average off-base housing costs out of their own pockets, with the housing allowance covering the rest. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Information Systems Agency is considering tightening its teleworking policy. Federal News Radio exclusively obtained a draft policy that, if signed, would cut the maximum days employees could telework from three to two. The draft policy would also cut supervisors’ telework days to one per week. The draft policy would require new hires to go through a six month probation period before they are allowed to telework. (Federal News Radio)

• Agencies will have more money to spend on performance bonuses for the Senior Executive Service starting in fiscal 2017. President Barack Obama signed a new executive order on reforms to the SES. It raises agencies’ aggregate spending limits on the SES back to 2010 levels, from 4.8 percent to 7.5 percent. Agencies are also required to look at their basic pay rates for the SES and make adjustments to consider locality pay and other factors. (Federal News Radio)

• The Food and Drug Administration launched a new infrastructure-as-a-service platform as part of the Precision Medicine initiative. Todd Simpson, the FDA chief information officer, said by moving to cloud computing services, the agency can process huge amounts of data a lot easier and more quickly. Simpson said the infrastructure in the cloud is part of an ongoing transformation to move away from on-premise computing environments. He said moving to the cloud will cost less and give the FDA the flexibility it needs.

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