Former NSA contractor indicted for stealing sensitive documents for years

In today's Top Federal Headlines, a federal grand jury indicts Harold Thomas Martin for stealing and hiding classified documents over the 20 years he worked as ...

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, a federal grand jury indicts Harold Thomas Martin for stealing and hiding classified documents over the 20 years he worked as a contractor.

  • A former contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton was indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing and hiding classified documents over the course of 20 years. The Justice Department said Harold Thomas Martin kept documents he knew contained sensitive information related to national defense. He faces 10 years in prison for each of the 20 counts of willful retention of national defense information. (Department of Justice)
  • The Environmental Protection Agency reminded its employees: ethics rules haven’t changed in the new administration. The EPA Office of General Counsel said employees, speaking in their official capacity, can use EPA time, resources, and property to express themselves, if they stay on the EPA message, and don’t express personal opinions. They have to make it clear that those opinions don’t represent the agency. (Federal News Radio)
  • A new federal agency is on the termination list. The Education Department joined the Environmental Protection Agency and the Election Assistance Commission in having bills in Congress calling for their closure. Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a one-sentence bill Feb. 7 that would terminate the Education Department by December 31, 2018. The House Administration Committee voted earlier this week to eliminate the Election commission and Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced legislation to abolish the EPA last week. (Federal News Radio)
  • Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform double down on their efforts for information about the Trump hotel and its lease with the General Services Administration. In yet another letter to GSA, eight Democrats asked for un-redacted documents related to revenue and expenses, submitted to GSA by the Trump organization. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Minority)
  • House Veterans Affairs Committee leadership said they want written, quarterly updates from VA about the status of its IT projects. They’re asking for updates on VISTA 4, the Digital Health Platform, four different scheduling initiatives and many others. They also want to know why VA is pursuing four different scheduling tools at the same time. VA said it will make a decision on whether it wants to move forward with its internal scheduling program by the end of the week. (House Veterans Affairs Committee)
  • A seasoned NASA official urges caution when it comes to deep space flight carrying humans. Bill Gerstenmaier, the head of human exploration at NASA, issued a warning and a reminder to a conference on commercial space. He said the risk of losing a flight crew in an accident will never be eliminated. Space-policy-online reported that Gerstenmaier said complacency can creep into mission planning, if officials rely too much on optimistic figures on the probabilities of disaster. (SpacePolicyOnline.com)
  • The Pentagon’s inspector general said he found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing by a former Air Force acquisition official who was removed for failing to report financial interests in a large defense contractor. The newly-released report found that Richard Lombardi failed to disclose his wife’s Northrop Grumman retirement account on government ethics forms from 2009 to 2015. But investigators said there’s no evidence he knew about the account until early 2016, when, according to Lombardi, he first discovered it and self-reported it to the Air Force secretary. Lombardi served for just a few months as the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition before officials reassigned him to a non-procurement post. He’s currently serving as the special assistant for service’s Invisible Combat Wounds Initiative. (Department of Defense Office of Inspector General)
  • The Air Force is trying to translate some military skills to the outside world. The service will take steps to turn government vehicle operator certifications into commercial driver’s licenses. To do that the Air Force will create a course to mirror the commercial license test. Air Force officials say the change will help veterans find jobs after leaving the force. (Air Force)
  • For the Agriculture Department, risk management isn’t just a chief information officer’s responsibility. This is why USDA CIO Jonathan Alboum is expanding the agency’s risk management board. Alboum said he’s starting by measuring the risk of cloud services, but plans to include non-IT efforts in the coming months. Alboum said he wants program and business owners to use data to make decisions on when and how to move forward with specific initiatives.

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