Labor Department says contractors shorted Capitol Hill cafeteria workers

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

• Capitol Hill cafeteria workers were denied over $1 million by federal food service contractors. The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division said the hundreds of workers will receive the pay in back wages from Restaurant Associates and its subcontractor Personnel Plus after they failed to pay them wages required of federal contractors. (Department of Labor)

• The White House has a new presidential policy directive that clarifies what roles certain agencies play in coordinating a cybersecurity response. The directive describes just how agencies will work together to respond to cyber incidents. The Justice Department will take the lead on responding to an immediate cyber threat. The Homeland Security Department will collect evidence and work with law enforcement to clean up and protect an organization’s system from an attack. And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will take the lead on intelligence and analysis. (Federal News Radio)

• Help is here for digital services. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the U.S. Digital Services officially opened their one-stop shop for all things digital. As Federal News Radio first reported, the TechFAR Hub will bring information, resources and discussions about buying and implementing digital services in one portal. OFPP and USDS said agencies can use the TechFAR Hub to take advantage of the best practices detailed in the TechFAR handbook from 2014. The TechFAR hub also includes tools like an agile solicitation builder and a cost estimator. (TechFAR Hub)

• Federal employees will get a new chance to voice how fairly they think they’re being treated. The Merit Systems Protection Board launched its 2016 Merit Principles Survey. The web-based questionnaire will be administered to about 120,000 employees and managers in July and August. Topics include employee engagement and nondiscrimination. (Merit Systems Protection Board)

• Political and career federal employees need to be careful in how they go about finding a new job. The Office of Government Ethics issued a final rule to help you avoid violating conflict-of-interest laws. The basic requirement is this: You’ve got to recuse yourself from agency business that might involve a potential employer. The penalties include prison and fines. You could also entangle the new company in an organizational conflict of interest. (Federal Register)

• The Defense Information Systems Agency has asked for $9 million from the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs. It wants it for its Rapid Innovation Fund. The RIF program is a research-and-development project and process which supports critical defense acquisitions programs. RIF Coordinator Erin Maultsby said DISA is looking to get mature prototypes of technologies ready for use in two years or so. (Defense Systems Information Agency)

• The Pentagon has opened its second innovation outpost under the banner of the Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental. A year ago, DoD stressed that the new DIUx effort, headquartered in Silicon Valley, wasn’t strictly about Silicon Valley, but about rebuilding the connections the Pentagon used to have with a variety of non-traditional defense contractors. That claim is now correct from a geographical perspective, as DoD opened its second DIUx office in Boston on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said bioscience and bioengineering will be a couple of the early focus areas for the newly established New England hub. (Department of Defense)

• The National Archives and Records Administration said federal agencies improved their record-keeping abilities last year. It released its 2015 Records Management Self-Assessment report. Chief Records Officer Laurence Brewer said there continues to be gradual improvement of overall RMSA scores. This is NARA’s seventh year in a row gauging how well agencies retain records. (National Archives and Records Administration)

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