Federal Union praises DOJ private prison decision

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

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, the American Federation of Government Employees hopes the Justice Department’s decision will help the Bureau of Prisons get more resources.

• After the Justice Department announced it’s phasing out the use of prisons owned by private companies, the American Federation of Government Employees praised the decision. President J. David Cox and AFGE Council of Prison Local President Eric Young hope the decision will inspire Congress to give the Bureau of Prisons the resources it needs. (American Federation of Government Employees)

• The Defense Department’s Freedom of Information Act policies are outdated. The agency’s Inspector General was asked to look into them by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to see whether any political appointees were dampening the FOIA process. While the IG found no instances of that occurring, it said DoD failed to complete mandated updates to their disclosure process. (Department of Defense Office of Inspector General)

• The Defense Department said it’s assembling a new team to assess and possibly shut down its most expensive data centers. The team’s expected to be up and running by the first quarter of fiscal year 2017. The DoD CIO’s office said it will use several criteria it’s still developing with help from industry to assess which centers might be able to boost their efficiency. The team will visit between 25 and 50 centers in its first-go-round. If it deems them as excess to the department’s needs, it’s also allowed to recommend them for closure. That will happen via an expedited process in which the DoD CIO presents a list of excess data centers to the Joint Staff and the deputy secretary of Defense. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Department also said it will soon move most of resources on the New Beginnings program to a public facing website. It’s also working with the Office of Personnel Management to develop self-assessments for civilian employees to help DOD determine which employees want to become leaders and to gauge their abilities. The Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service said it’s knee deep in training employees and supervisors on the New Beginnings Program.

• Adobe Systems is looking for a new person to lead its federal practice. Sources tell Federal News Radio that Barry Leffew has left the company after 10 years as vice president for public sector. Adobe or Leffew wouldn’t comment on the change, but sources said the company is actively recruiting a new candidate to lead the $350 million-a-year business sector. (Federal News Radio)

• Days after facing its first bid protest, the General Services Administration is extending the due date for bids on its $50 billion IT services contract called Alliant 2. GSA is giving vendors until Sept. 13 to submit proposals instead of August 29. Enterprise Information Services filed a protest with GAO on August 10 over the evaluation factors in the RFP. (FedBizOpps)

• Cybersecurity services are going to be easier to buy starting in October. The General Services Administration yesterday released the draft version of the new cybersecurity special item number or SIN under the IT schedule. GSA is creating four new categories for cyber services, including penetration testing, cyber hunt and risk and vulnerability assessment. Starting Sept. 1, vendors will be able to tell GSA how they meet the new requirements to provide these services. GSA will hold a webinar for industry on Aug. 24. Agencies can start purchasing cyber services from Schedule 70 under the SIN starting on Oct. 1. (General Services Administration)

• The EPA and a motorcycle company get in tune. Tuners let motorcycle owners boost their engine’s power. The EPA has forced Harley Davidson to stop selling the cigarette-package-sized devices and buy back ones already out there and crush them. The EPA said the tuners raise hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide output to illegal levels. Harley will pay a $12 million civil penalty. The Milwaukee company will also spend millions on a project to replace smoky wood stoves. (Environmental Protection Agency)

• A funding opportunity announcement from the National Institutes of Health said the agency wants a better way to measure how much booze someone’s had. NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is looking for wearable technology that can monitor a person’s blood-alcohol levels via skin contact in real time. (National Institutes of Health)

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