The Veterans Affairs Department still plans to make iPads and iPhones available for use on its network by Oct. 1, Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said this week. More than 100 workers–including Baker– are participating in pilot programs at VA hospitals across the country. Baker said he broke down and ditched his laptop for an iPad, “and it works pretty nice.” His tablet computer is connected to the network, and email data is stored on the device. Medical information will be encrypted and stored on an approved medical application. But the main focus is the clinician because “that’s where the real…
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What happens at the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t necessarily stay at the Postal Service. The latest example: A federal workers’ compensation fund could run out of money within three months if the cash-strapped mail carrier skips a $1.2 billion payment due in mid-October, according to the Labor Department. The department runs the fund under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. Should the Postal Service miss the October “chargeback” for past claims, officials estimate that the program would have no money to pay any benefits during the last four months of fiscal 2012, running from next June through September, according to a…
Game on! The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee just officially announced what is certain to a highly charged hearing next Tuesday afternoon, titled “U.S. Postal Service in Crisis: Proposals to Prevent a Postal Shutdown.” The focus is expected to be the Postal Service’s recently unveiled bid for the freedom to lay off some 120,000 unionized employees, along with creating its own retirement and health insurance programs. No witnesses have been announced yet, but they will presumably include U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe or a stand-in, as well as labor and mailing industry representatives. Unsurprisingly, all three proposals have…
Institutions can wait for written requests to disclose federally-funded researchers’ financial ties to pharmaceutical companies and other corporate interests, according to a final rule issued by the Health and Human Services Department Thursday. This is a change from the proposed rule brought by the agency in May 2010, which would have required institutions to post information about conflicts of interest on a publically available website. The final rule requires research institutions to determine if a researcher’s financial ties or interest in an outside company could bias or present a conflict of interest with federally funded research. It would apply to HHS’s National Institutes of Health, which received…
UPDATED 9:55 a.m.: More than a dozen federal buildings in the Washington area, including the Interior Department’s headquarters on C Street, are closed today following the 5.9- magnitude earthquake that rocked the east coast Tuesday afternoon. “Emergency employees are expected to report for work on time,” regardless of their building being closed, according to an update posted on the Office of Personnel Management’s website, which includes a list of all building closures as of 1:50 a.m. (A list of building closures is also included below). Employees working at buildings that are open will have the option of unscheduled leave and…
The Defense Department has extended the public comment period on a controversial package of proposed rules related to contractor safeguarding of unclassified information, according to a Federal Register notice. The comment period, which was supposed to end next Monday, will instead run through Nov. 30. The Pentagon gave no reason for the extension (apart from allowing more time for public input, of course). But, as Federal Times reported back in July, the package has drawn objections both from contractors (on the grounds that it would be unnecessarily burdensome) and open-government advocates (who suspect an end run around the Obama administration’s…
This just in: The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have worked out an agreement aimed at fostering more teamwork in corruption probes. Under a newly signed memorandum of understanding, CBP internal affairs investigators will be detailed to work with the inspector general’s office on investigations of customs employees. The arrangement will give the IG more resources, while Customs and Border Patrol managers will use the information gleaned by its investigators for “immediate oversight” of the employees under scrutiny, according to a Monday news release from the inspector general’s office. Turf tensions between the two…
The Federal Protective Service is having problems moving all of its services from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to its new home at the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. Despite an original deadline of Oct. 2010, FPS has only transferred 13 of 18 support services, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Aug. 15. As the report details: For example, while functions such as human capital and budget formulation have been transferred, information technology (IT) services, business continuity and emergency preparedness, facilities, personnel security, and equal employment opportunity have not…DHS also developed a detailed…
The Justice Department has named Eric Olson its acting chief information officer, following the departure of former CIO Vance Hitch last month. Olson, who served as the department’s deputy CIO, assumed his new role on Aug. 1. He inherits a $2.1 billion information technology budget, oversight of IT management and acquisition and integration of information resources. Hitch left his CIO post on July 31 after serving for more than nine years.
Seven companies have been selected to create new vehicles to test the use and recoverability of technology in near space, NASA announced Tuesday. Each successful vendor will receive a two-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, worth a combined total of $10 million. The selected companies are: Armadillo Aerospace, Heath, Texas Near Space Corp., Tillamook, Ore. Masten Space Systems, Mojave, Calif. Up Aerospace Inc., Highlands Ranch, Colo. Virgin Galactic, Mojave, Calif. Whittinghill Aerospace LLC, Camarillo, Calif. XCOR, Mojave, Calif. The work is part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., which fosters the development of commercial reusable transportation to near space, the region of…