Feds can donate leave to others employees affected by Louisiana floods

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, President Obama asks the Office of Personnel Management to set up an emergency leave transfer program for employees affected by the floods in Louisiana.

• Federal employees can donate unused annual leave to other employees affected by the flooding in Louisiana. President Obama asked the Office of Personnel Management to set up an emergency leave transfer program. It lets employees who were victims of the Louisiana flooding and need more time off from work apply in writing through their agencies. Agencies who have a lot of affected employees will figure out how much leave their employees will need, and how they will quickly they can transfer donated time to their employees who need it. (Chief Human Capital Office Council)

• A new congressional report blames faulty technology and senior leaders at the Office of Personnel Management for the 2014 and 2015 cyber breaches at the agency. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committees said the attacks were likely connected and coordinated. The report said a “failure of culture and leadership” led to the breaches. It directed OPM and other agencies to consider using a zero-trust IT security system. (Federal News Radio)

• Improper payments are on the rise at Health and Human Services. The department said it expects the rate of improper payments under Medicaid to hit 11.5 percent in 2016, up from 9.8 percent last year. That would be nearly $30 billion, or twice the amount as in 2013. In an e-alert, HHS cited many causes. Including state challenges with ineligible and excluded health care providers, identity theft, and fraud such as taking payments for services not rendered. (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)

• Still no word on what caused the two-alarm fire at the Agriculture Department facility in Beltsville, Maryland yesterday. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said there is no indication the fire was the result of a criminal act. Just last week the USDA had closed several facilities including the Beltsville office after receiving anonymous threats. (WTOP)

• Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Tom Rowden said he ordered an engineering “stand-down” for all littoral combat ship crews last month, so they could review procedures and standards for their engineering departments. The orders came after two engineering incidents occurred on two separate ships this year. Rowden said the review will take 30-60 days. (Navy)

• If the U.S. suffered a major attack via cyberspace, officials would most likely look to the National Guard to mount a response. But the Defense Department hasn’t identified what the Guard can and can’t do. The Defense Department said the Guard would play a key role in coordinating DoD’s support to state and local governments during a cyber incident — it, after all, has communications and cyber units across 54 states and territories, plus access to a wealth of civilian knowledge. According to the Government Accountability Office, The trouble is the Defense Department hasn’t built a database of which capabilities lie in each state, and might not be able to call upon those when disaster strikes. GAO said DoD has also struggled to integrate the Guard into complex cyber defense planning exercises. (Government Accountability Office)

• Congress wants to know more about the administration’s plans to secure federal, state and local election systems from cyber attacks. House Oversight and Government Reform IT Subcommittee Chairman Will Hurd (R-TX) wrote to FBI Director James Comey and Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson wanting to know what steps the agencies are taking to help protect election systems from future cyber attacks. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• New data gives the push to modernize IT across the government even more momentum. On average, agencies are spending $39,000 per employee for information technology. That is almost four times more than the average across other industries, so said new research from IDC Government. And this data becomes one more reason why OMB’s IT modernization initiative needs to get more attention on Capitol Hill. Tony Scott, the federal CIO, said the government’s bill to update old technology that is coming due over the next three years rose to $7.5 billion from $4.5 billion in May. (Federal News Radio)

• The longtime founder and executive director of the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund is retiring next month. Steve Bauer has been with FEEA for about 30 years. Joyce Warner will take over as executive director starting Oct. 6. She’s been the executive vice president for global programs at I-REX, a non-profit consulting firm. FEEA is a non-profit group that provides federal employees with educational scholarships and loans in times in need. (Federal News Radio)

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