Thursday Morning Federal Newscast – March 3rd

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.

• President Obama signs a two-week budget extension that puts off a government shutdown. The administration ramps up efforts to establish a budget for the rest of fiscal 2011. Vice president Joe Biden will be point man for negotiations with congressional Republicans on funding the government through September 30. The current continuing resolution expires tomorrow. The bill signed into law last evening keeps the lights on until March 18.
• Outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas says that planned layoffs are on the rise. The Washington Business Journal reports the leader in reductions is federal, state and local government agencies. The firm says job cuts rose 20-percent in February. Planned reductions at government agencies tripled. More than 50,000 job cuts were announced last month…the first year-over-year increase since May of 2009. Chief Executive John Challenger says look for more job cuts at the federal level in coming months, as lawmakers look for ways to cut costs.
• Even if the federal government doesn’t shut down, the budget battle on Capitol Hill is causing other problems. Democrat Jim Moran of Virginia tells our sister station WTOP that Fort Belvoir and Bethesda Naval Medical will not be ready for the onrush of traffic when those bases grow larger because of BRAC. The money that was slated to ease congestion has been stalled because of the ongoing budget standoff. Lawmakers say there might be other ways to fund those projects. Moran is worried, though, because he says military planners are moving forward, even though roads and other infrastructure just aren’t ready for the influx of people.
• The Obama administration takes a BRAC-like approach to getting rid of non-military excess real estate. It hopes to deliver a package of consolidation moves to Congress, where it will seek an up-or-down vote. Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients announces the initiative. He cites success of the Base Realignment and Closure process. The goal is to save $15 billion by shedding 14,000 excess facilities. An outside advisory board is established to find ways to speed the process of identifying and then selling the properties. The General Services Administration, which acts as the government’s landlord, will be actively involved.
• Changes to the Senate confirmation process may be on the horizon. Washington Post reports Senators want to introduce a bill that would drop the confirmation process for roughly 400 agencies. Other changes were discuss at a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meeting. The changes are expected to be introduced by New York Senator Chuck Schumer.

More news links

ICE intelligence chief suspended in fraud probe

Navy to release lewd video investigation findings

Army charges WikiLeaks suspect with ‘aiding enemy’

TSA probes allegations of unscreened plane luggage

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