To date, the Army has migrated 500,000 email accounts to the cloud, according to a news release. The Army expects to move a total of 1.6 million email users from disparate local servers to centralized servers operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency by March 2013. The Army projects the move, which began January 2011, will save $380 million through fiscal year 2017. The migration hasn’t come without challenges, delays and much scrutiny. The Army was forced to suspend the migration in December after concerned lawmakers temporarily withheld funding for the program, pending a detailed review. About 520,000 people across the Defense Department, including the Joint…
Monthly Archives: August, 2012
The National Treasury Employees Union is trying to push back against Republican efforts to convince the public to support policies that would cut back on federal employees and government services. Central to NTEU’s plan is a new survey they commissioned and released today, which found the vast majority of respondents think the government should put more resources and manpower behind food, medical device and nuclear safety, as well as border security and veterans assistance. “Some would have you believe the American people have this desire for austerity, but that’s not true,” NTEU President Colleen Kelley said in a phone conference…
After pushing the Air Force last year to recoup $4.3 million spent on repairs caused by poor contractor work, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is now proposing that all agencies explain why they decide not to take action against poorly performing contractors in Afghanistan. The bill, S. 3505, would require agencies to explain to Congress why they do not act on recommendations by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) to recoup money from poorly performing contractors, when the SIGAR’s recommendations would result in at least $500,000 in savings. The bill would cover instances when the agency fails to respond, disagrees with the SIGAR or only accepts part of the SIGAR’s…
A top Democratic senator is calling on the president to use executive branch authorities to better secure critical systems against cyber attacks. In a letter to President Obama on Monday, Sen. John Rockefellar, (D-W.Va.), urged the president to “explore and employ every lever of executive power that you possess to protect this country from the cyber threat.” Rockefeller co-sponsored the Cybersecurity Act, S. 3414, which failed passage in the Senate this month. The bill would have set voluntary standards for companies operating critical infrastructure, such as the electric grid, water treatment facilities and transportation systems. Rockefeller said that many portions of the bill…
No doubt about it: The U.S. Postal Service’s third-quarter financial report was–on the surface–a bloodbath. With $5.2 billion in red ink spilled in just three months, you might think Freddy Krueger was keeping the books. Amid all the gore, though, the numbers reflect some faint flickers of hope. The question is whether those glimmers represent: (1) A blip; or (2) An early sign that finances are at least stabilizing, if not actually turning around. USPS leaders are naturally eager to accentuate the positive, particularly after this month’s failure to make a required $5.5 billion payment into a fund for future retiree…
The Justice Department is adding a whistleblower ombudsman to its team to better support those who report wasteful government spending and mismanagement, agency officials announced Wednesday. Robert Storch, counselor to the inspector general, will train and educate Justice Department employees about the role and importance of whistleblowers, as well as their legal rights and protections against retaliation, according to an agency news release. Storch will ensure that whistleblower complaints are reviewed and addressed by the Justice Department inspector general’s office promptly, tell whistleblowers about the status and resolution of their complaints and monitor inspector general investigations of retaliation claims. Storch…
Last Tuesday marked another bittersweet milestone in the U.S. Postal Service’s seemingly endless downsizing campaign as almost 3,800 postmasters walked out the door. A few hundred more could follow them by the end of next month, according to USPS figures released today at FedLine’s request. The cause, of course, is the POStPlan, which calls for reducing customer service window hours at some 13,000 post offices nationwide to as little as two hours a day. As part of the same plan to save about a half-billion dollars annually, the Postal Service also intends to eliminate more than half of the 21,000…
Are you a chronic smartphone or tablet user, who regularly checks emails and conducts business outside of normal work hours? Federal Times wants to hear from you. How has this technology impacted your work-life balance? Are you a federal employee, manager or contractor, who knows when to power off, or are you struggling to keep personal and work issues separate? Please comment below or contact Nicole Blake Johnson at 703-750-8145 or njohnson@federaltimes.com
The American Postal Workers Union has an update on the status of buyout talks, only to say that there’s really nothing to say. “I understand that there is great interest in this topic among some members, but it is simply not feasible or smart to conduct negotiations in public,” APWU President Cliff Guffey says in this week’s release on the union’s web site. “Great interest” may be an understatement, based on the feedback that FedLine’s been hearing. Among some union members, frustration is also running high that two months after mail handlers got a $15,000 buyout offer, clerks are still…
Former Democratic Virginia Gov. and current Senate candidate Tim Kaine on Wednesday pledged his support for federal workers at a town hall in Arlington. At the event — sponsored by the American Federation of Government Employees, National Treasury Employees Union, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and other groups from the Federal-Postal Coalition — Kaine said that waging war against public workers “is not a management model that works.” “You and I both know that some — for one reason or another — want to make public employees the all-purpose punching bag in American political life,” Kaine said. “That,…