Obama nominates new Defense watchdog

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, In today’s Top Federal Headlines, President Barack Obama nominates Glenn Fine as the new Defense Department inspector general.

• President Barack Obama has nominated Glenn Fine as the new Defense Department inspector general. Fine is the principal deputy inspector general. Fine became acting IG at the beginning of the year. Before working at DoD, Fine served as the Justice Department inspector general and as the department’s special legislative counsel to the inspector general. (White House)

• Congress has avoided a government shutdown just two days before the 2016 fiscal year ends. Both the House and Senate approved a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded until Dec. 9. Along with the resolution, lawmakers passed a bill providing $1.1 billion in federal funding to respond to the Zika virus. (Federal News Radio)

• Federal Employee Health Benefit Program premiums are headed up. They’ll rise 4.4 percent in 2017. Federal employees and retirees themselves will pay6.2 percent more toward their plans. The government share will also rise by 3.7 percent. Open Season runs from Nov. 14 through Dec. 12 (Federal News Radio)

• A federal contractor gets 2 1/2 years in prison for misrepresenting his company as a veteran-owned small business. Federal prosecutors told a jury that David Gorski managed to get about $100 million in construction contracts that were set aside for service-disabled, veteran-owned small companies. Gorski isn’t a disabled veteran, so he recruited two people who were to act as the straw owners of his Boston-based firm, and got substantial set-aside work over the course of four years from the Army, Navy, GSA and VA. The scheme started to unravel when the company set up new bank accounts to give Gorksi more than $3 million in “gifts.” (Law360)

• Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has anticipated that the Defense Department will want extra money for troops staying in Afghanistan through 2017. Wilson said his concern is not about the troop levels, but that the Obama administration is committing troops without  fund to support them. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters earlier this week that DoD is at work on a supplemental budget. Carter promised Congress will receive that supplemental request by November. (Federal News Radio)

• The honeymoon period for the new federal CISO is already over. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) isn’t giving much time for the new federal chief information security officer to settle in. The California Democrat wrote to retired Brig. Gen. Greg Touhill Tuesday asking three questions about why agencies continue to struggle with cybersecurity. Lieu specifically asked why agencies still have more than a thousand open recommendations from the Government Accountability Office. He also wants Touhill to tell him what Congress could do to improve federal cybersecurity. (Rep. Ted Lieu)

• The time may be ripe for Congress to make changes to the defense space program. Former Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told a congressional panel the upcoming change in administration is the perfect time to set new goals for DoD’s space activities. DoD has been struggling with space acquisitions with programs coming in over cost and schedule. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Department is preparing to send 615 more troops to Iraq. The troops will help Iraqi government forces remove the Islamic State from the strategically important Mosul. The troops are set to go overseas in the next few weeks. DoD said they’ll provide logistics support and advice to the Iraqi forces.

• The Patent and Trademark Office is looking for ideas on automatically adding artwork to pending patent applications. At a roundtable, PTO explained its goal to industry and wants ideas before the public comment period ends Oct. 28. PTO said it wants to make the process easier for both applicants and the patent examiner. (GPO)

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