Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – February 23rd

Pay cut for some feds buried in CR

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Amy Morris discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will introduce a measure next week to keep the federal government running for 30 days at current funding levels. Reid says he wants to buy time to avoid a government shutdown and negotiate what he calls a responsible path forward. Reid says the short term bill would include $41 billion in cuts that Democrats agreed to in December. This could set the stage for a confrontation with House Speaker John Boehner who last week said he will oppose any short term CR that does not contain additional cuts. However, The Hill reports Boehner has said a stopgap measure may also in the works in the House, and that Republicans want to avoid a shutdown. The Senate will review the House passed spending bill next week. The current continuing resolution expires March 4th.
  • The White House says it is confident a government shutdown can be avoided, but it does have a contingency plan, just in case. The guidance from the Office of Management and Budget directs agency heads to develop plans in case of a “funding hiatus” and to submit those plans to OMB. They must include:
    • An estimate of the time to complete the shutdown.
    • The Number of employees on hand before the hiatus.
    • And the Total number of employees to be retained.
    • The agency heads must also decide what activities are essential to operate their agencies during a funding gap.

  • Buried in hundreds of amendments included in the CR passed by the House is a pay cut for some of the foreign service. Federal Times reports Congress in 2009 voted to phase in the Washington-area locality pay rate, which is now 24 percent, for the 13,000 Foreign Service officers and other government officials stationed abroad. Bill sponsor Rep. Thomas Reed (R-NY) said canceling these payments would save $140 million this year and $427 million by fiscal 2013. Federal Unions have come out against the measure.
  • A new report paints a grim picture of the government’s reliance on contractors for support in war zones. The Commission on Wartime Contracting has concluded that using private workers has become “a default option”. The report calls oversight and management of private contractors an administrative after-thought, and urges a series of reforms to prevent any more money from being wasted. Among the commission’s specific recommendations is the creation of a permanent inspector general to watch over war zone contracting, and requiring agencies to pay more attention to a company’s past performance before making new contract awards.
  • Two civil liberties groups are suing the FBI. The ACLU and the Council on America – Islamic Relations claim that a one-time informant was ordered to target Muslims for surveillance when he infiltrated a California mosque. The suit alleges the informant violated Muslims’ constitutional rights of freedom of religion. An FBI spokeswoman tells the AP that the agency does not target religious groups or individuals based on their religion. The informant infiltrated a mosque in Orange County, California. He helped build a case against an Afghan-born man who was arrested on terrorism-related charges in 2009.

More news links

US Air Force Tanker Award will be Announced Thursday (DefPro)

National Naval Medical Center prepares to merge with Walter Reed Army Medical (Gazette)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

We’ll look at tablet trends in the federal workplace and the benefits and pitfalls of tablet computers in general…

And does the possibility of a federal shutdown have you eyeing your TSP account? We’ll talk with Tom Trabucco about what he’s seeing.

Join guest host Francis Rose on the DorobekINSIDER today from 3 to 7 pm on 1500 AM or on your computer.

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