The Federal Aviation Administration notified 45,000 employees and retirees yesterday that files containing their personal data were hacked and their information was electronically stolen. The hacker breached 48 FAA files, two of which contained the personal information. Only employees on the payroll as of the first week of February 2006 are affected. Those individuals will be notified by letter and law enforcement has been notified, FAA said. In a statement FAA said: The FAA is moving quickly to prevent any similar incidents and has identified immediate steps as well as longer-term measures to further protect personal information. The agency is…
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Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner just unveiled the Obama administration’s plan to revise the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the financial system bailout. We’re calling it “TARP 2.0.” A few of the highlights that impact federal agencies: The Treasury Department will “stress-test” banks. Presumably this is to ensure that banks receiving money through TARP 2.0 are actually solvent. There’s serious concern that many of the largest banks in America are insolvent. Treasury and the Federal Reserve will create a “bad bank” to buy toxic securities with a mix of public and private capital. The government will guarantee a larger percentage of Small…
The Government Accountability Office is warning the Transportation Security Administration that the agency’s 2007 study on the efficiency and effectiveness of private screeners doesn’t tell the whole story. In 2007, TSA studied the cost, wait time in security lines, customer satisfaction, threat detection capabilities and recertification test passage rates of private security screeners at six of the nation’s airports and compared the results to federal screeners. A newly released GAO report reviews a TSA assessment of cost savings and performance of private screeners and found the agency didn’t account for all costs in its study, which found private screeners were equal to…
The recent peanut butter recall — products from the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) were contaminated with salmonella — makes a strong case for completely overhauling our food safety system. First, I think it underscores the need to merge FDA’s food safety functions with those of the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — in other words, creating a single food regulator. Why? We’ve learned that USDA bought peanuts from PCA and used them for school lunch programs. In fact, it was one of the company’s two biggest customers. And it regularly sent inspectors to review records at PCA’s processing facility. But so did the FDA, the agency…
A group of Republican and Democratic senators trimmed nearly $100 billion from the economic stimulus package over the last few days. Most economists say the cuts are a bad idea, because the smaller the stimulus bill, the less stimulative its effect on the economy. (Think of driving up an icy hill: If you’re not going fast enough, you slide back down.) Federal managers might not like the cuts, either: The revised Senate stimulus plan eliminates billions of dollars that were allocated for federal agencies. One of the biggest cuts will hurt the General Services Administration. The House stimulus bill gives…
Rep. Edolphus Towns, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is calling on the Treasury Department to implement accountability and transparency recommendations. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Thursday, Towns, D-N.Y., asked him to listen to the recommendations of Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky testified before the committee Wednesday, recommending that all TARP agreements include requirements that receipients of federal dollars must provide Barofsky and other oversight authorities information on how the money has been spent. He also urged creation of internal controls and clarifying compliance with TARP rules. He…
The White House is reportedly close to naming a new Office of Management and Budget E-government and Information Technology Administrator. Vivek Kundra, the chief technology officer of Washington, D.C., is expected to be nominated to replace Karen Evans, according to Federal News Radio.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee unexpectedly canceled Thursday’s confirmation vote for Labor secretary nominee Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif. The committee had been scheduled to vote on Solis at 2 p.m., but media and spectators arrived to find a committee staffer taping up signs saying that the hearing had been postponed indefinitely. Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and ranking member Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., issued a joint statement saying the hearing will be scheduled at at later date. Today’s executive session was postponed to allow members additional time to review the documentation submitted in support of Rep. Solis’ nomination to…
Yesterday, Secretary Hillary Clinton held a town hall meeting with State Department employees. One human resources intern, Chris Dilworth, had a very pointed question for her: Will you ban private security contractors? Clinton, after noting that private security contracts are a concern and the contract with the controversial Blackwater Worldwide will be terminated, had this to say: I certainly am of the mind that we should, insofar as possible, diminish our reliance on private security contractors. Whether we can go all the way to banning, under current circumstances, seems unlikely, but we ought to be engaged in a very careful review…
President Barack Obama wants a review of the Food and Drug Administration after a massive peanut butter recall for salmonella contamination. In an interview with The Today Show’s Matt Lauer before Sunday’s Super Bowl, Obama said he isn’t happy with FDA’s inspections process. Well, I think that the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to catch. And so we’re going to be doing a complete review of FDA operations. I don’t want to prejudge this particular case, but there have been enough instances over the last several years –-…