The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear assembly of world leaders hosted by an American president since 1945 is in Washington today to discuss nuclear security. DC area Federal Agencies are open today. But OPM encourages telework and alternative work schedules, during the nuclear security summit to avoid the gridlock. Employees may also request leave.
GSA rethinks the definition of success. Administrator Martha Johnson tells Federal News Radio her agency is working on a top-to-bottom review of how they measure mission success. Johnson says that in May senior leaders will develop new metrics that focus on transformation and capacity-building. No specifics on exactly what will change and how, but some metrics will be scrapped all together.
The American Small Business League has filed a lawsuit against the General Services Administration. The Washington Post reports that the group is accusing the agency of awarding small business contracts to Fortune 500 companies and destroying information in a database that could help advocates trace the violations. The league has asked a federal court in Northern California to force the government to restore the data, which spans 10 years, and to make the information public. A federal judge is set to decide on the request for a preliminary injunction by the end of April. Lloyd Chapman, President of the ASBL says that they believe $10 billion a month in federal contracts that by law should be going to small businesses are actually going to Fortune 500 firms and to some of the biggest companies around the world. A spokeswoman for the GSA said her agency could not comment on the lawsuit.
Federal agencies have submitted plans to become greener, and those plans could mean new rules for government and federal vendors. The blueprints detail how agencies will comply with an October presidential order to green operations. Federal Times reports the administration will use the information to craft regulations on indirect greenhouse gas emissions and even how workers get to and from work. Details on the plans will become public after an interagency review.
There’s a new proposal to scrap the competitive hiring process for grad students. A group of schools for public administration is instead calling for revitalized internship and apprenticeship programs. The National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration says the competitive hiring process for grad students puts the federal work force at risk of atrophy. According to Government Executive, the group proposes keeping or expanding the Presidential Management Fellows program to accept as many students as agencies want to hire.
A new report from the advocacy group Federally Employed Women says the hiring rate of women for top federal jobs has stagnated in recent years. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of women in the Senior Executive Service nearly doubled to over 26 percent. But since 2006, this upward trend has been slowing significantly, according to FEW. Since that year the percentage of women in the SES had increased only marginally to 29.95 percent.FEW said the presence of women in the SES and at the senior grade levels should be the same percentage as women’s representation in the federal workplace overall. The group also called the current growth rate of women in the SES “absolutely unacceptable.”
The U.S. government’s rescue of wobbly companies and financial markets is starting to look far less expensive or long-lasting than once feared. The Wall Street Journal reports Treasury Department officials say the tab is likely to reach $89 billion, which includes the Troubled Asset Relief Program, financial help for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, loan guarantees by the Federal Housing Administration and Federal Reserve moves such as buying mortgage-backed securities and propping up the commercial-paper market.
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