Thursday federal headlines – March 17, 2016

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

• The Citizenship and Immigration Service is pushing back against a harsh report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general. The CIS director disagreed with half of the recommendations to improve the immigration benefits processing system. The 10-year effort, called the Electronic Immigration System (ELS), is four years behind schedule and over budget by about $1 billion. CIS and the DHS IG are at odds over the audit process, as well as some of the recommended fixes to the program. (DHS OIG)

• The Federal Aviation Administration faces its biggest safety challenge in decades. Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel told the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation the agency is struggling to respond the growing use of unmanned aircraft systems or drones. FAA said it intends to issue its rule on small UAS operations later this spring. (DoT OIG)

• Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens is retiring. He said he will be stepping down on Sept. 2. Stevens became the 13th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy back in 2012. Eligible to replace him are all Fleet Master Chiefs as well as all Command Master Chiefs with at least 18 months of service at the three-and-four-star level. (Navy)

• The Defense Department disciplines over a dozen military personnel for their role in the aerial attack on a civilian hospital, which killed 42 people in northern Afghanistan last year. The punishments are said to be mostly administrative with no criminal charges being filed. The hospital, which is ran by Doctors Without Borders was attacked by an Air Force Special Operations AC-130 gunship. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan at the time said the accident was avoidable and caused primarily by human error. (U.S. News and World Report)

• The Office of Personnel Management takes heat for yesterday’s decisions. After Metro decided to shut down rail service for a day, OPM opted to keep the government open and let employees take unscheduled leave or telework. That rankled the Metro-dependent rank-and-file. Some feared roads would jam and parking spaces disappear. Some wondered why no two-hour delay. But others chided their fellow employees, saying a shutdown would’ve been costly and irresponsible. (Federal News Radio)

• The House Veterans Affairs Committee is working on a bill that would change how the VA recruits and hires new medical center directors and health care professionals. It would let the VA Secretary pay new doctors and health care executives based on competitive market pay, rather than standard rates under Title 38 or Title 5. The VA said it agrees with some but not all provisions. The committee is waiting on more feedback from the department before its work. (Federal News Radio)

• Veterans Affairs officials say they want to upgrade a decades-old patient scheduling system. VA Chief Information Officer LaVerne Council said the agency will test a new program at 10 sites. It’ll be easier to use than the existing green-screen system schedulers now use. Council told members of a House subcommittee that if the pilot is a success, it will be deployed nationally. (Federal News Radio)

• The National Guard plans to expand its state cyber units to 30 by 2019. The cyber role of the guard is expanding, but Guard Chief General Frank Grass said it has a backlog in cyber training. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said at McConnell Air Force Base there are 42  cyber vacancies and only three soldiers going through training this year. (Federal News Radio)

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