Sen. John McCain doesn’t know why the fiscally-strapped United States Postal Service sent him a folio of 2009 commemorative stamps, but he thinks the expenditure is “irresponsible.” In a Dec. 16 letter to USPS Postmaster General John Potter, McCain said the USPS has no business sending freebies to selected members of Congress while the organization has a $7 billion deficit and wants to close 170 post offices. Until the Postal Service no longer owes American taxpayers billions of dollars, I request that you refrain from spending limited Postal Service resources on unnecessary items such as engraved albums showcasing commemoratives (sic)…
Browsing: Congress
President Barack Obama signed into law a 1.5 percent pay raise and an average 05. percent locality pay increase for federal civilian employees on Dec. 16. The raise takes effect January 1, 2010. The pay raise is included in a fiscal 2010 spending omnibus which funds the following agencies: Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments. The only appropriations bill not signed into law is Defense, which the Senate may pass today. The House passed it Dec. 16.
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…
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.
The Senate confirmed Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Nov. 21. Senators confirmed Gordon by voice vote during a break in work on the Senate’s health care bill.
Rep. Eliot Engel is trying again to ban smoking near federal buildings. The New York Democrat unsuccessfully introduced a bill during the last Congress to ban smoking within 25 feet of any federal building’s entrances, exits, windows that can be opened and ventilation intakes. Engel reintroduced the bill Nov. 18 to correspond with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smoke Out smoking-cessation campaign. The Surgeon General reported in 2006 that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. One step we can take in limiting such exposure is to free the entrances of buildings of the clouds of…
Two critical federal leadership positions may soon be filled. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has unanimously approved Erroll Southers as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The committee approved both nominations by voice vote Nov. 19. It’s unclear whether the Senate will vote on these, or any other nominations, before it recesses sometime next week for Thanksgiving. Both nominees are considered non controversial.
After more than five hours of debate, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23-12 on H.R. 2517 Wednesday, which would grant federal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees. The bill would entitle domestic partners to myriad federal benefits, including medical benefits and long-term care insurance. To receive the benefits, the partner and the federal employee would have to sign an affidavit affirming that they are in a committed, long-term relationship and live together except for financial, work or other reasons. Votes on the bill were split along party lines. Republicans spent several hours offering a series…
Will the House’s health care bill change your Federal Employees Health Benefits Program? It depends who you ask on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which oversees the FEHBP. Sixteen committee Republicans sent a letter to Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., on Nov. 4, calling on him to schedule immediate hearings to analyze the impact H.R. 3692 may have on the FEHBP. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Nov. 5 she has the votes to pass the health care bill on Nov. 7. In the letter, Republicans said they need clarification on what the bill could do to participants…
The Government Accountability Office will report on the General Services Administration’s management of its supply schedules in the spring,said John Needham, a director of acquisition and sourcing management for the watchdog agency. The report will look at whether GSA’s reorganization improved management of the Multiple Award Schedules program and the effectiveness of the management tools GSA has in place, he said. Mismanagement of the schedules program led to a series of contracting scandals five years ago. The scandals prompted GAO to add interagency contracts to its High Risk List. In addition, the report will address concerns raised by the congressionally…