Monday federal headlines – August 31, 2015

In today's news, federal civilian employees and uniformed service members look forward to a pay raise in 2016, 16 vendors win a spot on the much-anticipated con...

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows. 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.

  • Federal civilian employees and uniformed service members look forward to a pay raise in 2016. Civilian feds receive an across-the-board increase of 1 percent, with the potential for higher increases for locality pay. Military members receive a 1.3 percent increase.  One federal union says the increase does not fall in line with private sector wages, which rose more than 8 percent in the past five years. This increase has federal employees voicing their opinions, not all of which are sarcastic. (Federal News Radio)

 

  • Sixteen vendors win a spot on the much-anticipated contract for agile development services. The General Services Administration’s 18F team made the award under the full-and-open part of the blanket purchase agreement. 18F said the 10 small and six large vendors demonstrated they could turn around a prototype in just a few weeks. 18F expects to issue two more sets of awards for small businesses in the coming weeks. (Federal News Radio)

 

  • The Pentagon says it’s making good on its promise to build closer ties with Silicon Valley. On Friday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter committed $75 million in DoD funding to help kickstart a new research center dedicated to creating flexible electronics. If the project pans out, the military envisions being able to embed advanced sensors and microprocessors in everything from soldiers’ clothing to the hulls of Navy ships. That could potentially replace the heavy, rigid circuit boards and cables that make up most of today’s electronics. The initiative will be led by a new research consortium called FlexTech, which raised $96 million of its own funding and won the Defense contribution as part of a nationwide competition. (Federal News Radio)

 

  • A senior Commerce Department official is accused of abusing government resources, retaliating against whistleblowers and falsifying time and attendance records. A new  report by the Commerce Inspector General substantiates many of the allegations against this unnamed senior official. The IG said this person misused government equipment by letting family members view pornography and other inappropriate material online. The IG says the official also collected two desktops, three laptops and at least two iPad tablets, suggesting the person was, at a minimum, indifferent to their obligation to conserve government property and resources. And the IG says there’s evidence the official interfered with its investigation by remotely erasing one of the iPads collected by investigators. The IG recommends Commerce take appropriate administrative action against the official. (Commerce Department OIG)

 

  • The Pentagon’s Office of Operational Test and Evaluation plans to pit the full-up F-35 against the legacy A-10 Warthog to gauge the new fighter’s ability to perform in a close-air support role. The F-35 could potentially square off against other fighter jets to evaluate its ability to protect soldiers on the ground. The tests will identify the assets the F-35 brings to the close-in fight and where it falls short compared to legacy planes. The planned comparative tests are not unprecedented as DoD conducted similar trials, between the F-22 Raptor and the F-15. The comparative tests are slated to begin in 2018. (Military Times)

 

  • Defense Secretary Ash Carter has a new draft on his desk on how to rebuild the military personnel system. Military Times reports that the draft contains dozens of recommendations from the Pentagon’s top personnel officials on changes for recruiting, pay, promotions, and management for the military’s 1.3 million troops. The Pentagon is calling the reform package the “Force of the Future.” It aims to sweep away antiquated laws from as far back as World War II and end the Pentagon’s one-size-fits-all personnel system. Carter is expected to publicly endorse recommendations from the draft by late September. (Military Times)

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