Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast

Written by Ruben Gomez & Tom Temin
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

More than three dozen Defense agencies get an extra two years to move to new secure buildings under BRAC, or the Base Realignment and Closure process. Virginia Congressman Jim Moran says agencies now have until 2014. Moran says a Pentagon memo overturns a mandate that defense buildings away from the Pentagon have beefed up protection from car bombers and other terrorists.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will today grill officials from the Federal Protective Service. According to the FederalTimes, they’ll ask whether FPS is keeping federal buildings safe. In July, the Government Accountability Office sent investigators to ten buildings that get a lot of visitors, and were able to carry in bomb-making materials right past security guards. The assembled the fake bombs in the bathrooms, then wandered throughout the buildings with them. Federal Protective Services officials will testify before the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on economic development, public buildings and emergency management.

President Obama appoints new members to a panel charged with resolving disputes between your agency and unions. Government Executive reports the move completes the formation of a new team at the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Most of the new members have served previously in federal labor relations groups. Six months ago, the president fired the panel appointed by President Bush.

It’s been a long road, but Robert Lentz says he’s calling it quits after 35 years working in federal IT and program management. Lentz is currently the Defense Department’s lead for cybersecurity and information assurance. Before that, he worked for the National Security Agency in financial and technical program management. After leaving government, Lentz plans to open a consulting firm.

If you mail a letter today, you might see former members of the Supreme Court staring back at you. The Postal Service has released a set of first-class postage stamps bearing the likeness of four justices. They include Felix Frankfurter and William Brennan, who were frequent adversaries on the bench. You’ll also see nineteenth-century Justice Joseph Story, and Louis Brandeis, who was the first Jewish American on the high court.

Flavored cigarettes have been banned by the federal government. And now the Food and Drug Administration is warning tobacco companies: Don’t try and get around the rules by offering flavored smokes without filters and calling them cigars. The Wall Street Journal reports Commissioner Margaret Hamburg says smokers mostly start when they are young, and the flavored products appeal to kids. The FDA’s Congress gave FDA the power to regulate tobacco in June. Fruit, candy, or clove cigarettes are out, but Congress made an exception for menthol.

The Obama administration has been criticized for appointing too many policy czars, who are not subject to Senate confirmation. But at least one czar is being converted to a confirmed position. The President plans to nominate Alan Bersin to be commissioner of Customs and Border Protection at Homeland Security. He now serves as Southwest border policy advisor. The agency’s job is to keep terrorists and their weapons out of the country, without blocking legitimate travel in and out of the U.S.

Leaders of a commission looking at bioterrorism say the biggest danger could come from within. Former Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent told a Senate committee that a rogue scientist working at a U.S. laboratory poses the biggest threat, according to GovExec. Such a scientist could steal deadly germs and turn them into weapons. The commissioners pointed to the case of Bruce Ivins, the microbiologist at Ft. Detrick, Md. Authorities believe he mailed the anthrax spores back in 2001.

More news links

D.C. train crash probe prompts nationwide rail alert (CNN)

4 hurt at border crossing after agents fire shots

U.S. scientists net giant squid in Gulf of Mexico (Reuters)

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