EPA inspector general clears agency of wrongdoing in Gold King Mine spill

• A report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general clears the agency of any wrongdoing in the 2015 Gold King Mine wastewater spill. However, while the agency broke no rules for handling blowout-prone toxic mines, they also didn’t have any rules in place for it to break. The IG made no recommendations beyond steps the EPA is already taking. (Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General)

• The account of a major program for the Veterans Affairs Department is quickly drying up. Secretary David Shulkin tells the Senate VA Committee the agency’s Choice program account will have enough to survive the current fiscal year, but it means using funds it was hoping to carry into next year’s budget. He wants Congress to help redesign the program. (Federal News Radio)

• The Department of Health and Human Services wants to take its financial management system to the cloud. HHS released a request for information to integrate its core financial system, two departmentwide reporting systems and more than 50 mixed systems which interface with these core financial and reporting platforms. The agency is looking for an assortment of services, including hosting, operations and maintenance, design, development, testing and implementation and transition services. Responses to the RFI are due June 23. (FedBizOpps)

• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) want inspectors general to review whether agencies are complying with processes for preserving electronic records. McCaskill and Carper sent letters to the IGs of the 24 major agencies. Reports of White House staffers using encrypted apps that automatically delete messages prompted the inquiry. (Sen. Tom Carper)

• It’s time for administrations to hold appointed political leadership responsible for agency results. That’s one recommendation from a survey of former, appointed chief operating officers and deputy secretaries, conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen. Respondents note the federal performance management system only applies to career people. And the Trump administration reorganization plan doesn’t lay responsibility for results on politicals. Former COOs said suggest reviving program rating tools from the Bush administration. (Federal News Radio)

• The Navy said its pilot training program is falling further and further behind while it continues to investigate a mysterious problem with the oxygen system on board its T-45 training jet. The commander of Naval Air Systems Command said the service has completely disassembled and inspected every component of the oxygen delivery system on the T-45, but still hasn’t found any indication of what could have caused dozens of reported in-flight incidents the Navy refers to as “physiological episodes.” The T-45 has been effectively grounded since April, and training has been delayed for at least 75 new pilots. Officials hope to resume training within the next few weeks, after they install new equipment to detect and prevent any future incidents.

• The Defense Information Systems Agency is prepared to back off of buying commercial for its unified capabilities contract if the price is too high. DISA wants to provide a cheap communication platform to Defense Department components, but if the security cost is too high, the agency might turn to open source. (Federal News Radio)

• One of the cooler missions NASA said it would be conducting is no more. Science Alert reports the agency’s Asteroid Redirect Mission has entered its closing down phase. The plan was to have a robotic crew grab an asteroid and put it in the moon’s orbit for research. However, NASA’s latest budget reshuffle ended up putting the mission on the chopping block. (ScienceAlert)

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