Tuesday Morning Federal Newsstand

Written by Ruben Gomez Edited by Suzanne Kubota This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED: Pay for performance at the Pentagon could play its final act...

Written by Ruben Gomez
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

Pay for performance at the Pentagon could play its final act if one lawmaker has her way. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, (D-NH), is set to introduce a measure today that would force the Defense Department to either prove its National Security Personnel System is working or return employees to the General Schedule within one year. Federal labor unions telling Government Executive that the measure would be an amendment to the 2010 defense authorization bill.

Federal judges could be in line for a boost to their leave and retirement benefits. Government Executive reports that the Senate is considering a bill to increase the amount of leave that some judges accrue automatically. They would get eight hours of annual leave for every two weeks on the job. The changes would apply to judges for administrative law, immigration and the contract board of appeals. Members of the House are considering upping the multiplier used to calculate annuity payments after retirement.

Too much money doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but for Customs and Border Protection it could hinder their mission. The Government Accountability Office says the agency may be overestimating the cost of hiring new border agents (pdf). As a result, CBP might request more funding than necessary and reduce money available for current operations. GAO says the high-price tag may stem from the use of bloated locality pay rates, but CBP counters that the higher pay rates are necessary because some agents may be deployed to the U-S Canada Border, where the cost of living is higher than in the region near the U-S Mexico line.

Blackwater is back in the news: this time for $55-million dollars in fines that it did not get. Government auditors say the State Department should have imposed penalties on Blackwater when staffing levels fell below what was called for in its contract to protect federal workers in Iraq. FederalTimes reports Inspectors General for the State Department and Iraq reconstruction say the violations happened over a 19-month period in 2006 and 2007. But State says the fines were not levvied because Blackwater was meeting service requirements. The company has since changed its name to Xe.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is still deciding whether to set up a new Pentagon cyber command. That word comes from Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who says the Defense chief is still ironing out details of how the command would work. If it moves forward, the office would coordinate cybersecurity efforts for teh entire military and all Defense agencies.

Other Stories We’re Following

Big Guns Take Aim at Federal Hiring Problem (WashingtonPost)

Animal rights views slow OMB regulatory nominee (GovExec)

Audit Finds That U.S. Overpaid Blackwater (WallStreetJournal)

DHS could be overestimating costs of new border agents (GovExec)

Administration calls for financial system overhaul

Pick for U.S. wildlife post had tough time in Texas (Austin American-Statesman)

Nominee for Army General Counsel withdraws (Politico)

Post-WWII immigration files to be opened to public

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