Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast

Written by Ruben Gomez and Tom Temin Edited by Andrew Mitchell This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED: The push to insource jobs has run into a snag...

Written by Ruben Gomez and Tom Temin
Edited by Andrew Mitchell

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

The push to insource jobs has run into a snag. A new report from the Government Accountability Office says nine of the top civilian agencies still have no plans for shifting work back to federal employees. The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act required agencies to draft guidelines by mid-July. But the GAO says that just didn’t happen.

It’s a day to celebrate small business contracting under the Recovery Act: Federal agencies as a group are beating their goals. The Small Business Administration says more than 25 percent of all stimulus contract dollars have gone to small firms. But Government Executive reports that large spenders, like NASA and the Energy Department are lagging – with numbers in the single digits.

Social networking reaches new heights for one astronaut. More than one million people have signed up to receive tweets from Mike Massimino. Earlier this year, he became the first astronaut to tweet from space. And apparently, the habit is contagious: NASA reports that several other astronauts have joined the Twitter revolution. And there are no signs it’s letting up soon.

Discrimination complaints filed by federal employees increased 2.4 percent last year, while the federal workforce increased by 4.1 percent. That’s the first time in ten years that complaints have gone up. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says complaints tend to rise when there’s a lot of new hiring going on. It says the workforce is more diverse, and people tend to know their rights. The Veterans Affairs Department saw discrimination complaints increased the most, up almost ten percent. Most complaints stem from promotions denied.

Senate Democrats are sponsoring a bill that would make it easier for workers to prove age discrimination. A Senate committee today takes up a measure that would require workers to prove age as a motivating factor in a demotion or layoff. A Supreme Court ruling on the issue forces workers to prove it was the deciding factor. The bill would effectively reverse the high court’s decision.

More news links

Key authorizers back second F-35 engine (GovExec.com)

Judge sends Deepwater false claims lawsuit to trial (fcw.com)

DHS announces immigration detention reforms (GovExec.com)

EPA awards 7 vendors spot on $955 million contract (FederalNewsRadio.com)

New Google Logo Celebrates The Barcode (washingtonpost.com)

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