Congratulations to Nancy Fichtner, a Veterans Affairs Department employee from Colorado, for winning the first ever SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award contest. Her money saving idea: Allow veterans to take home the medications they use while at the hospital, instead of tossing the prescriptions in the trash when veterans are discharged. The idea would not only save the government money, but veterans too. Fichtner’s idea beat out 38,000 other ideas submitted by fellow federal employees in the contest designed to harness the experience of frontline employees to save the government money. Her idea was one of four finalists…
Browsing: Agencies
Sony Corp. lately has been trying to drum up interest in its PlayStation 3 video game console by emphasizing its versatility — such as the ability to play video games, DVDs and high-definition Blu Ray discs and browse the Internet — under the slogan “It only does everything.” But CNN is reporting that the Pentagon has come up with a use Sony may never have imagined: Link more than 2,500 consoles together to create a massive supercomputer. CNN said the military is shopping for 2,200 new PS3s to complement a supercomputer cluster already running on 336 PS3s. The key to the supercomputer is the PS3’s…
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…
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.
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…
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…
Two White House officials held a conference call for reporters this afternoon to preview the president’s Afghanistan strategy speech tonight. (It was on background, so we’re not allowed to say who they were — frustrating, but those were the rules.) Most of it was focused on the military aspects of Obama’s new strategy, but the officials also said Obama will spend some time in tonight’s speech talking about the civilian role in Afghanistan: The president will announce how we’re sending additional civilian experts to Afghanistan to team up with military units. […] Their approach has to go well beyond Kabul.…