Federal Newscast

Thursday federal headlines – February 11, 2016

The Internal Revenue Service is expecting its workforce to shrink by 2,000-3,000 full-time employees during the current fiscal year.

Federal News Network Staff

February 11, 2016 8:09 am

4 min read

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

The Internal Revenue Service is expecting its workforce to shrink by 2,000-3,000 full-time employees during the current fiscal year. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the Senate Finance Committee this decrease will bring the total to a loss of 17,000 since 2010. He said even with its first funding increase in six years for fiscal 2016, the agency is still under significant financial constraints. (Senate Finance Committee)

The proposal to take Air Traffic Control out of the Federal Aviation Administration’s hands was under harsh scrutiny yesterday. During a four-hour hearing, members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee such as Peter Defazio (D-Ore.) intensely questioned the proposal to privatize ATC that threatens to stall an FAA reauthorization bill introduced by chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) last week. (House Transportation Committee)

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs approves a bill to cut down on federal paid administrative leave for employees under investigation. Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the bill forces government agencies to complete timely investigations and make fair decisions. It would create new categories of leave called investigative or notice leave, which would be separate from administrative leave. (Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

DoD, GSA, and NASA want input on the impact of possibly extending a rule which requires contractors to notify government agencies of changes to the costs of carrying out their contracts. Specifically the rule requires contractors to submit a description of any cost accounting practice change, the potential impact of the change on contracts containing a Cost Accounting Standards provision, and any other contractor business activity. All comments are due by April 11 of this year. (Federal Register)

Beth Cobert cleared her first hurdle in her nomination to be the permanent director of the Office of Personnel Management. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 15-0 to move her nomination forward. It now goes to the full Senate. Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he’s still concerned by OPM’s lack of response to two separate congressional information requests. Her nomination could face some hold up from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) who has requested documents on an OPM rule for the past two years. (Federal News Radio)

The Veterans Affairs Department wants 5 percent more in funding for fiscal 2017. Funding for the VA Choice program could dry up by the end of the year. The department will have to spend more on the program because more veterans are tapping into VA services for care. Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald said the average veteran uses the VA for 34 percent of his health care. If that estimate goes up 1 percentage point, the VA will need to spend $1 billion more. (Federal News Radio)

The Air Force is one of just a few elements of DoD that’s currently growing during an era of military downsizing – from 311,000 active duty airmen last year to 317,000 by the end of this year. But Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary, said the service may need to ask for a reprogramming to add additional troops in 2017. The service said its most crucial shortfalls are in the areas of cyber, aircraft maintenance and drone pilots. (Federal News Radio)

The Federal Communications Commission is benefiting from a new type of agility. When one of the business offices in the FCC has a technology need, the chief information officer’s office can have a working prototype up in as little as 48 hours. David Bray, the FCC CIO, said because the commission’s infrastructure is 100 percent in the cloud, the turnaround time for new capabilities is much quicker than ever before. Bray said the move the cloud has helped the FCC reduce its spending on legacy IT systems from 85 percent in 2013 to less than 50 percent today.

Office of Special Council makes its position known on a big whistleblower case. OSC has filed a brief with the Merit Systems Protection Board in the case of Mark Abernathy v. the Army. Abernathy is appealing a judge’s ruling he’s ineligible for protection because he was a contractor employee when he charged the Army with misusing equipment. He was later turned down for an Army job. OSC argued the whistleblower law does protect people before they apply for a federal job.