The House will take up a continuing resolution this week to keep agencies operating at fiscal 2009 levels while Congress completes the 12 annual appropriations bills, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced Sept. 17. The CR will not come up before Wednesday, according to the tentative House floor schedule. A final vote has not been scheduled, so it’s unclear if the CR will be finished this week. The House has passed all 12 of its fiscal 2010 appropriations bills, while the Senate has passed six. The end of the fiscal year is Sept. 30, and agencies have adapted to the…
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Reforming the Defense Contract Audit Agency will be the topic at a Sept. 23 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. The hearing will examine who is responsible for reforming the DCAA, which lawmakers have discussed relocating to ensure independence from the Defense Department’s comptroller. In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office found that DCAA managers pressured field auditors to change audit results to favor contractors and ignored basic auditing standards to expedite work and meet rigid performance standards. The hearing will be 10 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and the Federal Times will…
Within the next few hours, the House of Representatives may make a crucial decision regarding the fiscal future of the U.S. Postal Service. Due to a $7 billion deficit, the Postal Service can’t make its scheduled Sept. 30 payment to its retiree health benefits fund. HR 22, which the House debated Tuesday afternoon, would reduce this payment from roughly $5.4 billion to slightly more than $1 billion. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., praised the bill as a necessary move to protect retirees while Congress debates the future of the Postal Service. Towns is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform…
Members of the House’s Washington, D.C.-area delegation are urging lawmakers to keep a series of civil service reforms in the final version of the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization bill. The bill provides the long-desired FERS sick leave credit, which would allow sick leave to count as time served when calculating pensions. The provisions in the bill are the same as those contained in a bill introduced by Rep. James Moran, D-Va. “We’ve been working for a number of years to enact these common-sense federal employee reforms,” Moran said in a statement. “The House-passed Defense Authorization bill provides our best opportunity…
The Senate voted 57-40 Thursday to approve the nomination of Cass Sunstein to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, ending a months-long debate over Sunstein’s writings as a professor and his ideological views. At least two senators had placed holds on Sunstein’s nomination, due to concerns about his opinions on gun control and animal rights. Sunstein, a Harvard University professor, met with the senators, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and John Cornyn of Texas, and assured them he respected the Second Amendment and would not limit hunting or impose stricter gun control. The holds were then lifted.…
Before departing for its August recess, the Senate approved advance appropriations for the Veterans Affairs’ health programs Thursday, clearing the way for advanced funding of VA hospitals. Advocates said advance appropriations would ensure consistent, quality health care for veterans in case in case Congress does not pass the annual VA appropriation bill by the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. VA is currently funded yearly, which has has resulted in late funding for VA programs in 19 of the past 22 years. The House-passed 2010 spending bill for VA and military construction includes fiscal 2011 health care funding, and…
Just before leaving for its August recess Friday, the Senate cleared more than six dozen of President Barack Obama’s nominees, including multiple assistant secretaries and ambassadors. But most notable may be the lack of several confirmation votes of particular interest to federal employees. The nomination of Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has been held up for months over concerns over ideas in his academic writings. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed cloture on Sunstein’s nomination, setting up a final vote on confirmation when the Senate returns Sept. 8. The Senate also took no action…
Sen. Bill Nelson isn’t happy that some federal agencies are shying away from booking conventions and training sessions in resort cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas. After media reports that some federal agencies had formal or informal policies to avoid scheduling conferences in resort areas because of image concerns, Nelson, D-Fla., took to the Senate floor Monday to defend his state’s reputation. When you compare the cost of a hotel room in Orlando during the season with the cost of a hotel room, let’s say, in Washington, D.C., during the season, you will find that the Orlando hotels on…
During a week when much of the Senate ground to a halt for the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings, the Senate cleared two nominees Wednesday to lead NASA. Marine Corps Major Gen. Charles Bolden is now NASA’s administrator, with Laurie Garver as deputy administrator. The nominations were approved by voice vote. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., managed Bolden’s nomination on the floor. Nelson, a former astronaut, flew with Bolden on a 1986 space shuttle mission.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest organization of atheists and agnostics, filed a lawsuit Tuesday to try to block the engraving of “In God We Trust” and the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center. The Madison, Wisc., organization filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in western Wisconsin, after the House and Senate passed resolutions in July directing the Architect of the Capitol to make the engravings in a prominent place at the visitor’s center, the first point of entry for all tourists arriving at the Capitol. The engravings, paid for by taxpayer dollars, are…