Tuesday morning federal headlines – Jan. 10, 2012

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive host Tom Temin discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

• When it comes to that half-percent pay raise idea, most federal employees are lukewarm. More than 600 people answered a Federal News Radio online poll about the administration’s proposal for 2013. Half the respondents called it an insult. One wrote that half a percent won’t even cover the increase in health insurance premiums. His advice was, keep your paltry pennies, Mr. President. Most of the other respondents said half a percent is better than nothing. One wrote, it’s not much, but I’ll take it. (Federal News Radio)
• Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew will be taking the reigns as White House chief of staff. He’ll be replacing William Daley who is stepping down at the end of the month. President Obama called Lew the clear choice for one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. Lew has been the head of OMB since November 2010. He also served as budget director during the Clinton Administration. Lew would stay at OMB to finalize the 2013 budget before moving on. No word yet on a successor. (Federal News Radio)
• A new analysis finds the federal government’s spending on research and development will decine under the 2012 budget President Obama just signed, driven mostly by cuts to Defense spending. Overall federal R&D spending will go down by 1.3 percent, according to number crunchers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. DoD research dollars will fall by 3.2 percent compared to 2010, with the cuts concentrated in operational systems development and classified programs. The bright spots for research, according to the association, are in basic and applied research and energy and environmental research. The Department of Energy, for example, will boost reseach spending by 8 percent, and Commerce will spend almost 13 percent more this year. (AAAS)
• NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin a sole source contract to test its new Orion crew capsule. Lockheed is NASA’s prime contractor for the Orion program. Orion is supposed to take humans on voyages throughout the solar system. NextGov reports, the latest contract is worth $370 million. The unmanned test will take the capsule into earth orbit and bring it back. Engineers hope to discover any weak spots that could endanger a crew. NASA says it plans to launch an Orion capsule with astronauts aboard some time in 2014. NASA administrator Charles Bolden plans to tour Lockheed facilities near Denver later today. (NextGov)
• The Internal Revenue Service is relaunching a program designed to get tax dodgers with assets in secret offshore bank accounts to come forward voluntarily. It’s not an all-out amnesty: cheaters would still have to pay penalties ranging from 5 percent to 27.5 percent, depending on how much money they have socked away. But the agency says people who don’t come forward will face much tougher penalties, including the possibility of criminal prosecution. The IRS says its previous voluntary disclosure programs prompted 33,000 people to come forward in 2009 and 2011, returning $4.4 billion to the treasury. (IRS)
• Federal investigators are reportedly looking into an alleged hack into the systems of a Congressionally-chartered group that monitors economic relations between the U.S. and China. The probe comes after an online hacker group posted documents that they allege came from the military of India, including transcripts of email exchanges between members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Reuters reports the documents make reference to assistance from mobile phone manufacturers, who they claim provided assistance to Indian spies, a charge that at least one mobile company denies. (Reuters)
• For the Army, moving to the cloud is a matter of hurry-up-and-wait. The Army is in the midst of moving 1.4 million users’ e-mail accounts to a cloud operated by the Defense Information System Agency. But the 2012 Defense Authorization bill requires multiple reports to Congress and some other steps by the Secretary of the Army before it will let the Army spend any more money to make the move. That’s prompted the Army CIO to pause the migration for 45 days. The Army isn’t the only one affected. Lawmakers want the DOD CIO to submit a report on how the rest of the department will move to the cloud. (Army)
• The Agriculture Department plans to close nearly 260 sites nationwide. Closures would hit both offices and laboratories in Washington and 46 states. Secretary Tom Vilsask says it will save $150 million a year. Some of the closings were previously announced, including 10 agricultural research stations. Elisabeth Hagen, undersecretary for food safety, said the closures would not cause a reduction in food inspection. But one district manager says the department is wiping out the Midwest. (Federal News Radio)
• Officials at Customs and Border Protection say their seizures of counterfeit and pirated goods shot up last year. They had almost 25,000 cases, an increase of 24 percent over 2010. CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement focused their efforts on health and safety products like pharmaceuticals and perfume, where the increase in 2011 was even bigger, 44 percent higher than in 2010. China leads the pack in terms of source countries for counterfeit and pirated goods. China accounted for 62 percent of the goods seized in 2011. But CBP says the fake goods are getting more difficult to find, with more and more of them being sold to individuals via websites and shipped via U.S. Mail. (CBP)
• President Obama is set to make a visit to employees at the Environmental Protection Agency this afternoon. The White House says the President and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson will stop by an EPA staff event this afternoon to thank workers for their service protecting the nation’s air and water. Following that, the President and Vice President are both set to hold private meetings at the White House with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (White House)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.