Five Democratic representatives on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would guarantee at least four weeks of paid leave for federal employees who become new parents, whether through the birth or adoption of a child. HR 517 — sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Gerry Connolly, D-Va., George Miller, D-Calif., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C. — would grant all feds who become parents four weeks of paid parental leave, apart from their stored sick or annual leave. They would then be able to use up to eight additional weeks of sick or annual leave to be…
Yearly Archives: 2013
Federal employee unions on Wednesday swiftly denounced a Republican plan to delay the steep budget cuts known as sequestration by cutting the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and other GOP lawmakers proposed legislation that would put sequestration off by only allowing the federal government to hire one new employee for every three who leave. This would save about $85 billion, the same amount sequestration is supposed to cut for the rest of fiscal 2013. The American Federation…
CGI Federal this month became the second vendor to complete a new security review process for all federal cloud products and services. The Virginia-based company already provides cloud computing services for several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the General Services Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) was launched in June to standardize security reviews of commercial cloud products and is housed within GSA. North Carolina-based Autonomic Resources was the first company to receive what’s called a provisional authority to operate from FedRAMP’s joint board of CIOs. The provisional ATO proves a…
The General Services Administration announced another 60-day round of public comment Tuesday on which green building certifications the federal government should use. GSA is required every five years to evaluate green building certifications for government use and make recommendations to the Energy Department about which systems to use. The Energy Department will then choose any combination of standards that best fit the government’s needs. The Energy Department has avoided picking one certification standard so far. In 2010, the agency proposed a rule that would allow agencies to use any third-party standard that met Energy Department criteria. GSA has been under…
It looks like a long road lies ahead in the high-stakes legal battle between Northrop Grumman Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service over a botched automation project worth more than $900 million. In a joint filing last week, lawyers for the two sides laid out their timetable for conducting the legal fact-finding process known as discovery. Their deadline for wrapping it up (and yes, you are reading this right): Jan. 15, 2016. Along the way, each side may conduct up to 50 depositions a piece, and that doesn’t include expert testimony. As Federal Times has previously reported, the Northrop Grumman…
Attention, wonks: If something seems to be lacking from the start of your week, perhaps it’s the fact that President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget request is supposed to go to Capitol Hill today. Except, of course, that it’s not and a delivery date could still be some time off. The annual request is due on Capitol Hill the first Monday in February. But because of the uncertainties that preceded passage of last month’s “fiscal cliff” deal, the administration was “forced to delay some of its FY 2014 budget preparations, which in turn will delay the budget’s submission to Congress,” acting…
Since Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Jan. 16 that he plans to step down at the end of March, federal government watchers have speculated that Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry may be in the running to replace him. When I asked Berry that day about the job, he wouldn’t even say whether he had talked to President Obama. “No comment,” Berry said. “At this point, I stand ready to serve the President in any capacity he desires.” But his old friend and former boss, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, is far less reticent about Berry’s possible…
The Department of the Navy will not award a contract next month for its Next Generation Enterprise Network as planned. Navy officials had originally planned to award one or two contracts by Feb. 12 to develop the massive private network, known as NGEN, but the award date has been pushed back to May 2013. “Due to the complexities of the NGEN requirements, we are changing our contract award estimate in order to ensure a complete and thorough review of offerors’ bids,” Ed Austin, spokesman for the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems, said in a statement. Three companies have…
How would access to cellular or wireless services in your building help you do your job better? What challenges do you face today without those services, and does your agency have a plan for increasing mobility within its own walls? Federal Times wants to hear from you. Contact Nicole Johnson at 703-750-8145 or via email at njohnson@federaltimes.com.
“A change would do you good,” according to that noted management consultant, Sheryl Crow. But for the U.S. Postal Service, change has been wrenching, particularly when it means shaking the habits acquired during years as a complacent semi-monopoly. A couple of recent reports highlight the rigors of reinvention for USPS leaders, not just in chasing new revenue and overhauling slipshod management practices, but in ultimately retooling their sprawling operation to survive in the digital age. You might think, for example, that the Postal Service enjoys an inside track with its sister agencies in the federal government. Instead, it’s taking a beating from private-sector rivals in competing for a big part of agencies’ shipping…