Friday federal headlines – February 12, 2016

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

• The Government Accountability Office is launching a fresh review of safety at federal buildings. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked Comptroller General Gene Dodaro about this issue back in 2013. Chaffetz is now asking the GAO to review how well agencies are conducting risk assessments and whether security is getting better because of the standards. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• President Barack Obama will nominate John King as Secretary of Education. King became acting secretary in January. He is the department’s principal senior advisor. A lifelong educator who credits his success to New York public school teachers, King has been a teacher, a principal, the leader of a network of schools, and State Commissioner of Education in New York. (White House)

• A Defense Department study on the demographics of the military shows significant challenges to future recruiting. It notes unemployment rates among 16-to-24-year-olds have dropped after a prolonged period of high unemployment. That means fewer young people will turn to the military for employment.  The study also found that enlistment-age people are more likely to enroll in college immediately after high school. The study suggests budget constrains have kept military pay from growing, making the military a less attractive career path. (CNA)

• The Homeland Security Department continues to monitor for Zika virus at ports of entry. But officials said enhanced screening wouldn’t work. That’s because most infected don’t show symptoms. DHS is deploying mosquito control at detention facilities and educating its employees. The Obama administration has called for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding for the Zika response. (DHS)

• Republicans in Congress are arguing among themselves on how to deal with the President’s 2017 budget request. As we reported, neither the House nor Senate appropriations chairs want to even have a hearing on the more-than-$4-trillion request. But House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is urging his colleagues otherwise. Ryan warns of severe consequences if Congress fails to pass a 2017 budget by the Sept. 30 deadline. Ryan’s advice: go with the numbers they’ve got then hold the administration accountable. (The Hill)

•  Homeland Security officials said they want a common budget structure for nearly all of the department’s 22 component agencies. That change is included in the President’s 2017 budget proposal. Secretary Jeh Johnson said the new structure would help streamline the department’s acquisitions under four different accounts. It would apply to all component agencies except the Coast Guard. (Federal News Radio)

• The Commandant of the Marine Corps says junior officers and enlisted Marines would be the first to go if the service needs to cut end strength in favor of cyber priorities. That would make a large chunk of the Marine Corps vulnerable. Sixty percent of Marines are under 25 years old. The ratio of enlisted Marines to officers is nearly 10-to-1. To modernize the force, the Marines have been doubling down on cyber and information warfare in recent years. (Federal News Radio)

• The Office of Management and Budget is trying to put some real numbers behind the common refrain that federal employees with cybersecurity skills are in short supply. Tony Scott, the federal CIO, said OMB is creating an inventory of what they believe the federal workforce gaps are when it comes to cybersecurity.  But OMB isn’t waiting for the data to do something about this challenge. The President’s 2017 budget request includes several new initiatives to address the increasing demand for cyber experts. (Federal News Radio)

• The top IRS official says the agency is more than simply muddling through this year’s tax season. Commissioner John Koskinen tells a skeptical House committee that 25 million returns are already in. And customer service is better than it was last year. He says his goal is to have 60 percent of taxpayer phone calls answered within 5 minutes, up from 40 percent last year. The $290 million budget increase this year helped, but Koskinen is hoping for more in 2017. (Federal News Radio)

• Only a few are barely in service yet, but the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is already being modernized. The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin an $81 million contract to sort out requirements and develop what it calls the Block Four modernization program. It will apply to the Air Force, Navy and Marine Core versions of the F-35. Boiled down, the contract seeks to improve everything about the plane, including its life cycle costs. The contract runs through May of 2017.

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