Federal Drive

Monday Morning Federal Newscast

Pay raise and agency funding update, Christmas Eve half-day holiday, consumer financial protection agency progress

Federal News Network Staff

December 14, 2009 8:32 am

3 min read

Written by Ruben Gomez & Tom Temin
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

Congress passes a catchall spending bill for 2010, including a 2-percent pay raise for civilian federal employees. The Senate finished work Sunday on the $1.1 trillion dollar measure, which includes about 450 billion for agency operating budgets. The bill also raises base pay for civilians by 2 percent with up to half a percent for locality pay. Congress is still working out a separate spending bill for the Defense Department.

Most federal employees will spend part of Christmas Eve away from their workplaces. President Obama has signed an executive order directing all agencies to close for at least half of Thursday, December 24th. The executive order allows for some essential offices and installations to stay open.

The House has approved the creation of a consumer financial protection agency. The bill rewrites the rules governing financial markets and curbs the power of the Federal Reserve requiring it to seek approval for emergency lending. The measure also gives the Government Accountability Office more power to audit the central bank. The bill is designed to address shortfalls that led to last year’s financial meltdown. No word on when the Senate will act on its version.

CIA Director Leon Panetta cancels another contract with the former Blackwater firm. Under the contract, personnel from the company, now called Zee, loaded missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan. The work will now be done by government personnel. Anonymous sources tell the Associated Press, the classified drone program targets senior al-Qaida and Taliban operatives along the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2011 budget and five-year defense plan will probably include funding for a new Air Force long-range bomber. That word came Friday from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates delayed funding a new bomber in fiscal 2010, saying the program should be scrutinized in the Defense Department’s Quadrennial Review. The review is wrapping up, and Gates says it points to the need for both manned and unmanned long-range strike capabilities. Gates spoke to U.S troops during a visit to the contested northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

A new report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services examines the Senate health care bills now being debated, reports the Wall Street Journal. CMS actuaries estimate total health costs in the United States would be $234 billion higher, than if a bill was not passed. The report intensifies disagreements over the proposal as Democratic lawmakers try and get to a final bill before the end of the year. The report says savings from limits on Medicare costs and generous insurance plans would be outweighed by having 33 million more people insured under government plans.

More news links

Obama dog Bo has own Christmas stocking

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERALNEWSRADIO

Coming up today on The Daily Debrief:

We’ll talk with the winners of the DARPA challenge. How did the team from MIT manage to find all those giant red balloons in less than nine hours?

We will continue our discussion about the top stories of the past decade with Molly O’Neil, former EPA CIO. She brings us a unique perspective on how portable data has really changed everything.

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