Two key themes emerged at this morning’s Town Hall with top Obama administration officials in honor of Public Service Recognition Week: First, the public often doesn’t understand or appreciate all the things federal employees do for them. And second, that’s partly because a hostile or indifferent press corps only appears interested in federal workers when they throw extravagant Vegas conferences or hire a couple of prostitutes. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius, and acting General Services Administration head Dan Tangherlini spoke with news anchor Cokie Roberts at the Partnership for…
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The 2009 stimulus act may be fading into history, but its legacy will live on in the federal watchdog community. Some 16 inspectors general have joined in a “lessons learned review” from implementation of what is officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That’s according to a recent letter from Kathleen Tighe, current chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. The review’s purpose is “to identify which actions, processes and mechanisms have been either beneficial or posed challenges” to agencies and IGs in meeting the act’s requirements. Among the specific areas to be examined: performance measures, pre-award…
Here are a few pics to enjoy of Discovery’s amazing flight into Washington today …
We offer a big congratulations and best wishes to our friend and former colleague Eileen Sullivan at the Associated Press who yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Many of you may remember Eileen’s great work for Federal Times back in 2003-2005 when she covered our homeland security beat. She broke a number of stories for us, including stories in late 2004 and early 2005 about how the Homeland Security Department imposed — and then later rescinded — a highly controversial policy that required employees to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to gain access to unclassified information marked “for…
May 6 marks the beginning of Public Service Recognition Week. For this occasion, Federal Times invites you to share your thoughts on the state of federal public service. These are trying and uncertain days for federal employees. Their compensation and contribution to the nation are under scrutiny like never before. Public support for federal employees is low. The nation’s leaders are engaged in an important debate on how to readjust the size and role of government. Meanwhile, federal employees are retiring in large numbers. We invite you to write a short, candid essay — between 300 and 500 words —…
Spring Break fever was in the air today on Capitol Hill. Legislators have officially fled Washington D.C. and there will be no hearings until April 16th. But before the final votes ensued, the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight held a hearing where Senators McCaskill, Portman and Tester grilled witnesses from the Army, The Office of Personnel and Management and The Department of Homeland Security over contractor spending. Meanwhile, Chairwoman McCaskill’s grandsons were in attendance. My guess is they are on their own Spring Break. They sat graciously through the hearing; only occasionally trying sneak into my shot. I’m sure they…
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced draft legislation Friday that would reform the 2002 Federal Information System Management Act. The Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2012, would provide stronger oversight of federal networks, computers and other information systems by focusing on continuous monitoring of those systems, according to a news release. “FISMA had become a compliance activity, even at times when compliance appeared to supersede security.” The draft legislation, which is open for comment, defines automated and continuous monitoring as monitoring, with minimal human involvement, through an uninterrupted, ongoing real time, or near real-time process used to determine if the…
Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner is about to testify before a Senate subcommittee, and her prepared remarks contain some interesting stats on the growing workload at the Office of Special Counsel: OSC expects its overall caseload in fiscal 2012 will be 10 percent higher than last year. Waste, fraud and abuse whistleblower disclosures will likely be 32 percent higher this year than in fiscal 2011. OSC expects to see a 6 percent increase in prohibited personnel practice cases this year. In fiscal 2011, OSC received 2,583 cases, which itself was a record. Overall filings have jumped 30 percent over the last…
A new $32 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, is the first designed specifically to hold what the agency calls low-risk detainees, according to an ICE announcement last week. The facility, with recreational facilities such as a gym and soccer field, allows the detainees more freedom of movement than the prisons that house most detainees, said ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen. Karnes County paid the upfront cost and partnered with a construction company to build the facility in exchange for a contract with ICE to house about 600 detainees. It’s a model ICE hopes to replicate:…
You may soon have an additional option to consider as you approach retirement age: retiring part-time and working part-time at your current federal job. Courtesy Goodyear, Ariz. The Senate approved an amendment that would authorize the use of phased retirements for retirement-eligible feds. Under a phased retirement, a fed can work part-time — say, one, two, three or four days a week — and collect a partial retirement annuity for the time he or she is not working. And, throughout that time, the fed continues to earn partial retirement benefits. These proposed phased retirements, which President Obama proposed in his…