Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast

Written by Tom Temin, Ruben Gomez and Suzanne Kubota
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

An astonishing amount of information on NSF computers is NSFW. The Washington Times reports this morning employee misconduct investigations grew six-fold in the past year, overwhelming the Inspector General’s office. One senior executive spent 331 days looking at porn on his government computer and chatting online with nude women. When finally caught he retired, but before his porn surfing cost the government up to $58,000. The IG’s office says the investigations have “significantly” reduced efforts to investigate grant fraud.

House lawmakers today aim to shine more light on what you pay for drugs under Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Specifically, they’re aiming at pharmacy benefit managers, who contract with insurance companies, and influence drug prices. The benefit managers have little government oversight. But some lawmakers want to change that by making them federal subcontractors. Federal Times reports that lawmakers will meet with several interest groups today.

The House has passed legislation to save money for thousands of federal retirees facing a rise in Medicare Part B premiums. It’s called the Medicare Premium Fairness Act. The law is aimed at retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System, who don’t receive Social Security payments. Sponsors say those retirees could see premium go up by $120 dollars a month for Medicare Part B, which pays for outpatient health care expenses.

You’ll pay more for your federal health insurance next year. Exactly how much should be released later this week. Federal Times reports the average premium will jump by almost nine percent. That’s the largest increase since 2004. OPM is expected to release rates for individual plans sometime this week. Open Season starts on November 9th.

The Secret Service is investigating an online poll asking whether President Obama should be killed. The survey was posted on Facebook over the weekend. The choices were: No, Maybe, Yes … and “Yes if he cuts my healthcare.” Facebook quickly removed the poll after it was discovered, and the poster has been suspended from the site.

States who ask for it have a little more time to comply with a federal mandate to issue high-tech drivers licenses and ID cards. The Department of Homeland Security has given states more time to request an extension to comply with REAL ID. The new date is December first. REAL ID was designed to beef up homeland security, but the program has been criticized as costly. And now Congress is considering a revised law that reduces cost.

The federal Recovery Act Transparency Board launched the long awaited, new version of its web site, Recovery.gov. The site has lots of new features and graphics, and the RAT Board is asking the public to weigh in with suggestions, according to NextGov. But it you want to actually see where the spending is going, you’ll have to wait. The latest stimulus spending information won’t be loaded until the middle of October. The new site is the result of 10 weeks of development by a vendor under an $18 million contract.

The Obama administration plans to commit $35 billion to help state and local housing agencies continue to provide mortgages to low- and moderate-income families. The Wall Street Journal reports, the move would deepen government’s role in propping up the housing market. Government-operated housing agencies have been struggling to find bank funding amid the downturn. Many first-time and low-income home buyers depend on these agencies to give them low-rate mortgages.

The Office of Personnel Management is no longer projecting the retirement of federal employees. A spokesman tells FederalNewsRadio OPM will not estimate how many agency workers will retire in the coming years because projections haven’t always held up. This decision by OPM reverses years of projections that found federal employees were expected to retire in great numbers. As of 2006, OPM said 59,269 agency workers were expected to leave government, but only 57,649 eventually did retire. OPM also did projections in 2008 that go through 2018 that finds more than 577,000 federal employees are expected to retire over this 10-year period. OPM made those projections under the last administration.

More news links

Farmers See Ray of Hope in USDA Bias Case (WashingtonPost)

Border fence stalls fiscal 2010 spending bill (GovExec)

Ex-Bush officials face lawsuits over their actions

Gingrich, Sharpton tour Philly with ed secretary

Workers thriving at 70, 80, and even 100 (CNN)

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