The House Appropriations Committee will consider this week allocating more than $2 billion for combating H1N1, also known as swine flu. President Barack Obama announced last week he wanted Congress to provide $1.5 billion to respond to the illness, which has sickened more than 1,000 worldwide. House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wisc., said Monday he wants to add an additional $350 million for state and local aid. We have to be ready at the community level. There have been 11,000 public health layoffs at state and local public health departments in the last few years. That hurts our readiness status.”…
Monthly Archives: May, 2009
Okay, maybe not the best metaphor, since it’s been raining all day in Washington. Nonetheless: In the next five days, the Obama administration is probably going to release a more detailed 2010 budget proposal, its cybersecurity review, and the details of the bank “stress tests.” Busy week. The details of the stress tests have been slowly leaking out — Citigroup and Bank of America both need more capital — and it’s an open secret that the cybersecurity review will call for a big White House role in cybersecurity. But it will be interesting to dig into the specifics. And, of…
Federal Times wants to hear from security clearance investigators about your job. Do you have enough resources to conduct your investigations? Are the workloads too heavy? Do you feel pressure to sacrifice quality to clear cases faster? What needs to be done to improve the process? E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. If you’d prefer that your name not be published, that would be fine.
The Smoking Gun reports that FEMA pulled a children’s coloring book from its Web site earlier this week after it drew criticism for including images of the World Trade Center attacks. The coloring book, “A Scary Thing Happened,” was intended to teach children about disasters and the emotional turmoil they cause. But some felt that showing the smoldering Twin Towers might be going too far. “Oh gosh, that was on the front of a coloring book?” Kim Pressley-Herrick, founder of Coloring Away Pain, told Fox News. Pressley-Herrick’s company produces coloring books intended to help children deal with traumatic events. “As…