At a hearing today of the Senate Homeland Security committee, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced that he’s placed a hold on the nomination of Rafael Borras, President Barack Obama’s nominee for DHS undersecretary for management. I have a hold on Mr. Borras… I do not believe that individual is qualified to take this very, very important position that’s now being held by [Elaine Duke]. Elaine Duke, of course, is the current undersecretary for management. She was appointed by former President George W. Bush, but the law that created the position also allows the USM to stay in office until a…
Monthly Archives: December, 2009
Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen was hard at work judging the first annual Commandant’s Chili Cookoff on Dec. 10. It was all for a deliciously good cause: raising funds for the National Capital Area Combined Federal Campaign, according to Allen’s blog. And from his comments there, it sounds like it was tough: However, as much as I tried, I couldn’t match the intensity of Command Master Chief [Petty Officer Steven] Cantrell who obviously has grasp of the intricacies of fine chili. Ultimately, Allen chose U.S. Army Col. Kevin Hawkins’ steaming batch of Airborne Ranger Chili as the “Commandant’s Choice.” Hawkins’…
Federal employees will get a little more time for last-minute Christmas shopping this year. President Barack Obama on Friday evening issued an executive order closing executive branch agencies and excusing employees on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. But employees who are essential for national security, defense, or other public needs will not get a short day, Obama said. FedLine assumes that also goes for the crucial staff at NORAD Tracks Santa. President George W. Bush gave federal employees Christmas Eve off — and a four-day weekend — in 2007, when Christmas fell on a Tuesday. Last year, when Christmas fell on a…
Federal Times is proud to announce that our new online forums are open for business! Just click this link to find the forum. Registration is free and easy, and you can sound off about anything on your mind. For example, click here to express your thoughts on the NSPS repeal and what it might mean for future pay raises. And my colleague Rebecca Neal has begun a conversation about the proposal to have OPM cover millions of uninsured Americans in this thread. And feel free to start your own conversations too. Is something going on in your agency you think…
Ever been out to dinner and had the urge to read a section of U.S. Title 5? Well, for $9.99, you can download a personal copy of the full U.S. code to carry with you wherever you take your iPhone. Yes, that’s right, apparently there is a market for everything. Title 5 is the section that dictates rules, standards and behavior for federal employees, and Tekk Innovations wants to make sure you’re never without a copy of trusty U.S. Title 5. By downloading this handy app, you can search the entire code, e-mail sections and even have access to tables…
Congratulations to Nancy Fichtner, a Veterans Affairs Department employee from Colorado, for winning the first ever SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award contest. Her money saving idea: Allow veterans to take home the medications they use while at the hospital, instead of tossing the prescriptions in the trash when veterans are discharged. The idea would not only save the government money, but veterans too. Fichtner’s idea beat out 38,000 other ideas submitted by fellow federal employees in the contest designed to harness the experience of frontline employees to save the government money. Her idea was one of four finalists…
The two councils that amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation published seven new rules in the Federal Register today. The one I found the most interesting was this rule, which finalizes an interim rule encouraging food service contractors to donate “wholesome excess food to nonprofit organizations that provide assistance to food-insecure people in the United States.” That its publication comes during the holiday season, when we’re all more aware of the needs of local food banks, is likely a coincidence. But it serves as a nice reminder that in these tough economic times, when demand is outpacing donations in many places,…
As you may have heard by now, many senators are proposing to back off of creating a government-run health care plan to cover uninsured Americans and instead want to task the Office of Personnel Management with running a smorgasbord of private health insurance plans that would serve Americans needing coverage. Senators appear to be modeling the idea after the existing Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the health insurance program that serves about 8 million federal employees, retirees and their families. Do you think that’s a good idea? Is OPM up to the challenge? Do you think such a plan…
As you may have read, President Obama signed an executive order Thursday that re-establishes labor-management partnerships aimed at fostering greater cooperation and collaboration between government and union leaders. More details on this to come soon, but for now, here’s a link to the executive order. What do you think? Are labor-management partnerships good for a smoother-running government? Or will they put too much power in the hands of federal unions? What do you see as the likely result of this?
Sony Corp. lately has been trying to drum up interest in its PlayStation 3 video game console by emphasizing its versatility — such as the ability to play video games, DVDs and high-definition Blu Ray discs and browse the Internet — under the slogan “It only does everything.” But CNN is reporting that the Pentagon has come up with a use Sony may never have imagined: Link more than 2,500 consoles together to create a massive supercomputer. CNN said the military is shopping for 2,200 new PS3s to complement a supercomputer cluster already running on 336 PS3s. The key to the supercomputer is the PS3’s…