Most federal employees who have a work-issued smartphone have a BlackBerry. If you’re eligible to receive a work phone, do you want to trade your BlackBerry in for an iPhone but can’t because agencies don’t issue iPhones because of security concerns? I’m writing a story about the iPhone and the government market, and I’d like to hear from federal employees who wish they could use an iPhone at work. Please e-mail me at rneal@federaltimes.com, and as always, we don’t publish any e-mails or information without first getting your permission.
The federal government is borrowing too much and costs too much to run. If it were a private company, it would have cut employee salaries a long time ago to make ends meet, say two economists in a column for Forbes magazine. And that’s what the federal government needs to do to show it’s serious about fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit, write economists Robert Stein and Brian Wesbury. If private companies operated like the federal government, creditors and analysts would have serious concerns about the companies’ fiscal health and reconsider doing business with them, they write. And with unemployment…
A senator has placed a secret hold on the confirmation of a gay woman and other nominees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, apparently in violation of a 2007 law that cracked down on such anonymous holds, Keen News Service reports. Many conservative groups have oppposed the nomination of Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum as an EEOC commissioner because she is gay. Nevertheless, Feldblum’s nomination was reported out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in December along with three other EEOC nominations, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate. Since then, however, an unnamed senator has…
Last week I wrote about a video contest being sponsored by the General Services Administration, which is offering $2,500 to the person who best extols the virtues of the government’s information portal, www.usa.gov, through a 30- to 90-second video. Not to be outdone, the Environmental Protection Agency is also getting into the act. EPA yesterday launched a contest seeking videos that raise awareness about environmental justice, which EPA defines as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and…
In another red-letter day for the world’s greatest deliberative body, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., reportedly flipped the middle finger to a reporter who kept asking him about his blockage of a bill that, among other things, today resulted in the furlough of about 2,000 Transportation Department employees. According to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl: “Excuse me! This is a Senators only elevator!” Bunning thundered. I tried again to ask his reasons for blocking the bill, Bunning said he already explained his reasons last Thursday, when he said he wanted the $10 billion cost of the bill to be paid for, rather than…
If you’re one of the nearly 2,000 Transportation Department employees who was furloughed this morning, Federal Times would like to hear from you. How did you find out about the furlough? When did you first hear this was a possibility? How is it going to affect you? E-mail me or my colleague Gregg Carlstrom at slosey@federaltimes.com or gcarlstrom@federaltimes.com. We won’t publish your name if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
Tune into News Channel 8’s Federal News Tonight this evening to catch an interview with yours truly. I’ll be speaking about the Pentagon’s plans to end the controversial National Security Personnel System and how some Defense Department employees could end up getting hurt in the process. Federal News Tonight is on at at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington area. My segment will air sometime between 7:40 and 7:55 p.m.
(Updated below) After years of a stagnant economy, furloughs are nothing new to private-sector workers — including newspaper reporters! — and even many state and local employees. But now they’re affecting the federal government. It’s not because of the economy, though. The Senate needed to pass legislation last week to extend federal highway and transit programs — and the legislation was blocked by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who said he objected to the bill because it wasn’t deficit-neutral. The legislation stalled. The result? The Transportation Department has to furlough nearly 2,000 employees, starting today, and ending… whenever the bill gets…
A hat tip to Ed O’Keefe over at the Washington Post for following up on this Missile Defense Agency logo foofarah. Conservative bloggers got all worked up because a new MDA logo’s color scheme and apparent “O” shape resembled the Obama campaign logo. Some of the loonier commenters online thought it was patterned after the Islamic star and crescent, echoing the “Obama is a Muslim” smear from 2008. One blogger, Frank Gaffney, made the especially silly claim that the logo proves Obama’s decision to kill the highly flawed and, according to the Air Force chief of staff, “not … operationally viable”…
White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers is leaving her job a few months after her office allowed uninvited guests to attend a state dinner, the White House announced today. Rogers will be returning to the private sector in Chicago, where she first met President Obama, reports The Washington Post. Rogers faced blistering criticism from Congress and the media after employees of her office, which clears guests for White House events, failed to catch three uninvited guests who walked into a state dinner for the prime minister of India. In a statement, the president and Michelle Obama thanked Rogers, a longtime…