Federal Newscast

Friday federal headlines – April 22, 2016

Congress want to make the federal government more effective by cutting out overlap between agency programs.

Federal News Network Staff

April 22, 2016 7:45 am

3 min read

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

Congress want to make the federal government more effective by cutting out overlap between agency programs. The Getting Results Through Enhanced Accountability and Transparency Act of 2016 could help identify duplicate initiatives so programs with similar missions can coordinate more efficiently. The bill would hold agency leadership accountable if they don’t address waste issues made by Government Accountability Office reports. (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

The General Services Administration is taking a new approach to delivering its shared service to provide smart identification cards under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12. In a new solicitation for its Managed Service Office USAccess Program, GSA is asking vendors to change the service delivery model. GSA wants the new MSO vendor to provide and maintain all equipment to credential federal employees for the life of the contract. The MSO supports about 600,000 cards across 105 agencies. Responses to the RFP are due May 20. (FBO)

After a long wait, the Veterans Affairs Department has an inspector general. The Senate confirmed attorney Michael Missal as VA’s IG earlier in the week. It gives VA someone to fill a vacancy that’s been open for more than two years. A former counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Missal is a partner at the Pittsburgh law firm K&L Gates. He was nominated back in November and must take on numerous management challenges at VA. (House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee)

A pair of senators introduced the Promoting Value Based Defense Procurement Act. The bill tells the Defense Department to ignore criteria for low cost pricing when looking for the highest quality services like IT, systems engineering, or technical assistance. Supporters said with the complexity of those types of services, getting the lowest price doesn’t guarantee value.

The Air Force wants to take down drones that could potentially pose a threat to government resources. A recent request for proposals calls on contractors to develop a portable system that can detect, identify and defeat unmanned aircraft by disrupting or controlling the radar frequency signature between a drone and its pilot. Responses for the RFP are due by May 11.

The House Armed Services Committee wants to fit both a troop increase and military pay raise into its 2017 defense authorization bill. Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is planning to move $18 billion out of the overseas contingency operations fund and put it in the base budget. Thornberry envisions it being made up in a separate request by the new president to the new Congress next year. (Federal News Radio)

The DATA Act will change the way federal spending information is reported, but the right people are needed to help share it. The General Services Administration director of the analytics and services office, Johan Bos-Beijer, said there’s a hiring challenge across the government and private sector for data experts. Bos-Beijer said these experts need a varied skill set that includes being able to present information. The DATA Act is in the process of being fully implemented across the government, with a full rollout deadline by May 2017. (Federal News Radio)

Veterans and agency hiring managers have said they’re confused by complex veterans preference regulations. Veterans service organizations said they have no insight in decision-making during the hiring process because they don’t know when an agency applies veterans preference and why. According to assistant secretary for veterans employment at the Labor Department, Michael Michaud, the Merit Systems Protection Board closed 590 veterans preference appeal cases in 2015. Five percent of them were upheld because they had merit. (Federal News Radio)