House and Senate negotiators have approved a 1.5 percent nationwide increase in base pay and a 0.5 percent average increase in locality pay for federal civilian employees effective January 2010. A House and Senate conference committee approved the pay raise as part of a spending omnibus late Tuesday night, setting the stage for the House to take up the spending package this week. The conferees adhered to President Barack Obama’s requested 2 percent federal pay raise, breaking a long-standing tradition of pay parity with the military. Members of the military will likely receive a 3.4 percent raise in 2010. The…
Monthly Archives: December, 2009
The Project on Government Oversight, which first exposed the antics of a group of State Department security contractors guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, says that contractor, ArmorGroup North America, has been fired. In a news release today, POGO announced it obtained a State Department email informing ArmorGroup’s management that its contract for security services will not be renewed for a fourth year. The department will instead extend the contract for six months while a new contractor is found. In the news release, which laments the continued use of contractors to provide security, POGO executive director Danielle Brian said:…
I spent most of the day reporting on the Obama administration’s new open government policy. Then I noticed this story from ABC News: In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. Perhaps not the kind of “open government” the White House has in mind. In all seriousness, though: The most sensitive parts of the document include details on how many bags are searched for explosives, which nationalities are subject to extra…
The House passed a bill today to continue funding the Federal Aviation Administration through March 2010. HR 4217 extends aviation taxes as well as allows the FAA to spend those tax revenues on its programs. The FAA has been operating under a series of extensions since its authorization expired in 2007, and the current extension expires Dec. 31. The House has passed a re-authorization bill in May, but the Senate has not taken it up due to a full calendar.
Time for one of my periodic “I’m looking for postal employees…” posts. I’m working on a story about the Postal Service’s labor grievance process, and I’m looking for postal employees who have filed grievances against USPS. Don’t care what the outcome was — whether you won, you lost, or the complaint is still pending. If you’re interested in talking — anonymously, of course — e-mail me.
Since Santa Claus has been tracking whether we’ve all been bad or good this year, it’s only fair we have a way to track Santa on Christmas Eve so we know when to check our stockings for coal. And in just under 17 days the North American Aerospace Defense Command will help us do that. That’s right — NORAD Tracks Santa is back! And NORAD has launched this calendar of games to help us keep track of time before it keeps track of Santa. I tried all the of the games to date. The game from Day 1 is, in…
Congratulations to the four finalists in the Office of Management and Budget’s first SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award. OMB staff narrowed down the 38,000 entries received between Sept. 23 and Oct. 14 to the following four: Allow citizens to make Social Security appointments online This idea came from Christie Dickson, who works for the Social Security Administration in Alabama. Allowing online appointment scheduling will free up Social Security staff to handle other inquiries on the phone, Dickson told OMB. Approximately two-thirds of Social Security phone calls she receives are for appointments, and it would save time for both…
One of the changes accompanying the major Thrift Savings Plan overhaul Congress passed earlier this year granted the surviving spouses of deceased federal employees the right to keep those employees’ TSP accounts. (Widows and widowers previously had to liquidate those accounts within 60 days of the death of a spouse.) But the board governing the Thrift Savings Plan won’t be finished setting up a system to do this until 2010. And the Office of Personnel Management just released a statement outlining the TSP’s interim procedures that will be in place until the system is finalized next year. Here’s how it will…
For your Friday enjoyment, faux TV pundit Stephen Colbert ribs Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the White House gate crashers, al Qaida, immigration enforcement and swine flu: [HTML1]
Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced today that he will leave the Justice Department on Feb. 5 to return to private practice. Odgen joined the department in March, having previously chaired the Obama Administration’s transition team for the department. In a statement issued by the department, Odgen said he always intended to return to private practice after helping to get the department on the right footing to carry out its law enforcement duties. Odgen said senior leaders have bolstered the department’s efforts with new resources and initiatives, including task forces and working groups to fight financial crime, combat health care…