New Defense CMO nominee named

Federal Newscast

New Defense CMO nominee named

In today's Federal Newscast, the Defense Department's Comptroller David Norquist says the department has been properly preparing for its deadline for audit...

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

June 19, 2017 8:29 am

3 min read

The Pentagon’s top financial official said DoD will meet its deadline to be “audit ready” by the end of September. DoD has been working toward the deadline for the better part of seven years, and as the department pointed out in its most recent audit readiness update, most federal agencies haven’t earned clean opinions until they’ve been under full-scale audits for several years. But newly confirmed Comptroller David Norquist said now’s the time to start. He said the department has already contracted with several outside accounting firms to perform the audits, both for the Defense Department’s various components and an overarching audit of the entire department.

President Donald Trump has nominated former aerospace executive John Gibson to be the Defense Department’s chief management officer. He also named Peter Shelby to fill the role of assistant VA secretary for human resources. Shelby is the founder of an HR consultancy firm. Also, James Clinger was nominated to chair the FDIC. He’s been chief counsel for the House Financial Service Committee since 2007. (White House)

The Army has only chosen 13 soldiers to join its career intermission pilot program in the last two years, when it allows up to 20 a year. The program lets soldiers leave active duty to pursue schooling, professional or family goals and then come back. The Army said it will continue to follow the program into 2017. (Federal News Radio)

Ranking members of the House and Senate veterans affairs and VA appropriations committees published a new report detailing the impacts they think the president’s 2018 budget would have on veterans. The congressmen said they are most concerned about a proposal to cut individual unemployability benefits once someone is eligible for Social Security. VA Secretary David Shulkin said the department is now rethinking the idea. (Sen. Jon Tester)

The House Homeland Security Committee passed the DHS Reauthoriztion Act out of committee. The chairman of the committee and seven others in the House signed a memorandum of understanding with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to smooth over some jurisdiction issues the committee has had with others in the past. This would be the first time since its creation that DHS would get congressional reauthorization. (Federal News Radio)

President Donald Trump’s signature on a very short bill will have very big consequences for would-be federal whistleblowers. The Follow the Rules Act extends whistleblower protections to feds who refuse to follow orders they believe violate federal regulations. Last year, the Supreme Court held that protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act only extend to orders to disobey a law. The case involved a fired State Department employee and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The episode prompted Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) to introduce a new, two-sentence bill. (White House)

A new website from the Census Bureau aims to make it easier for both novice and experienced users to find its data. Data officer Zach Whitman described the new site as Google-like, with a single search window. It will help narrow down data searches through the more than one trillion estimates collected by the agency. (Federal News Radio)

GSA’s on-ramp for a major small business IT contract has garnered a large number of winners. Now 502 small businesses have a better shot at earning a piece of the $90 billion federal technology spending pie. The General Services Administration announced it added 500 firms to the 8(a) STARS II governmentwide acquisition contract. GSA held an open season across the four functional areas of the contract vehicle. Since 2011, agencies have spent more than $5.3 billion on the 8(a) STARS II IT services and solutions contract vehicle. The Defense and State departments are the biggest users of the GWAC. (FedBizOpps)

Two weeks left to have your donations to the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund matched dollar-for-dollar. For the month of June, Blue Cross Blue Shield will provide up to $25,000 in matching funds. FEEA said therefore the goal is to raise $50,000 in the month. (Federal Employee Educational and Assistance Fund)