Wednesday federal headlines – October 15, 2014

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows each day. Our headlines are updated twice per day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon — with the latest news affecting federal employees and contractors.

• President Barack Obama says he won’t nominate a new attorney general until after next month’s mid-term elections. A White House official said Obama was asked to delay a nomination by Senate Democrats over concerns that a controversial nominee could be used against them in tight re-election races. The White House source said that if Republicans gain control of the Senate, Obama would nominate someone who could be confirmed by the lame duck session still in Democratic control. Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder says he’ll stay on until a successor is confirmed. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief says he wishes he’d acted faster to fight Ebola. Now Tom Frieden says the CDC will dispatch a rapid response team anywhere in the United States where an Ebola infection occurs. CDC now has a team in the Dallas hospital where Ebola killed a Liberian man. Frieden says a rapid response team might have prevented the infection of a nurse there. If another case is diagnosed, Frieden says the CDC will be there within hours. In Dallas some 70 doctors, nurses and other staff members treated Thomas Duncan, who was visiting from Liberia. (Federal News Radio)
• The Veterans Affairs Department executive at the center of the reverse auction procurement scandal, Susan Taylor, retired Tuesday before she could be fired. VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson had initiated rapid dismissal procedures under authority from the VA reform bill that became law in September. An inspector general audit said Taylor committed procurement fraud, using her position to steer contracts to FedBid. The VA still has taken no action against the company. The audit found executives there improperly influenced the VA. (Federal News Radio)
• The general in charge of U.S. Southern Command sent an envoy to Germany to learn more about Ebola from Africa Command. Gen. John Kelly said Central American political leaders are worried their coming winter vacation period will bring Ebola into their countries. He says Southern Command is conducting simulations for dealing with an outbreak, just in case. He’s asked for modeling data on how outbreaks spread. Kelly says Central American and Caribbean countries like Haiti would have a difficult time coping with Ebola by themselves. (Federal News Radio)
• An Air Force drone makes its way back to Earth. The X-37-B spent nearly two years in space, but the Air Force won’t tell the public what the aircraft was doing while in orbit. CNN reports the plane most likely landed Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The landing marks the end of X-37-B’s third and longest mission. It launched in December 2012. Boeing designed the unmanned, reusable spacecraft. The X-37-B launches vertically, but lands horizontally on a runway. The Air Force will use unused hangars at the Kennedy Space Center to work on the program. NASA announced the agreement last week. (CNN)
• One agency can’t fight Ebola or Islamic State militants alone. That’s why officials from the Army and Homeland Security are putting their heads together. The two agencies will work together on how to best use their resources. Federal Times reports the agencies will plan for everything from natural disasters to cyber threats. Army General Charles Jacoby heads the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. He says the Army is already working with FEMA, the Coast Guard, and Customs and Border Protection. (Federal Times)
• The Pentagon has hit a key contracting milestone. For the first time, the Defense Department exceeded its goals for small business contracting. Almost a quarter of DoD’s prime contracts in 2014 went to small businesses. The contracts gave small firms $53 billion in work. Those numbers put DoD on track to exceed governmentwide goals. Agencies must aim to award 23 percent of their prime contracts to small businesses. DoD also exceeds goals for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. Three percent of the Pentagon’s contracts went to those firms. (DoD)
• Civilian employees at the Defense Department are not too happy with their senior leaders. DoD just released its data from the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Less than 40 percent of civilians said management generates high levels of motivation in the workforce. That’s down three percent from the year before. And only 10 percent said they’re very satisfied with senior leaders’ policies and practices. Nearly a third of civilians aren’t satisfied with information they get from management on what’s happening in the agency. The Office of Personnel Management conducts the viewpoint survey every year. It’s expected to release the governmentwide results later this fall. (DoD)

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