Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – March 9th

Identity theft tops complaints to FTC Historic federal union election begins today Foreign Service over-stretched, under prepared

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.

  • The Senate votes today on its plan to to trim the budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Republican plan, already approved by the House, would cut 57 billion dollars on top of the 4 billion in cuts lawmakers and President Obama signed last week. The earlier measure keeps the government running through next week. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calls the GOP plan a non starter. The Democrats’ proposal would trim an additional $6 billion or so. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls that embarrassing. House Republicans are at work on another short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.
  • Tens of thousands of ballots are being mailed to Transportation Security Officers. They’ll be casting their votes in what could prove to be a historic election. The National Treasury Employees Union says this will be the largest union election in federal labor history. NTEU is competing with the American Federation of Government Employees union to provide representation for TSA workers. TSA employees will have the opportunity to vote from March 9th through April 19th, with votes tabulated on April 20th at the Federal Labor Relations Authority headquarters.
  • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has counseled or disciplined more employees who accessed pornographic sites on government computers. The Denver Post reported Tuesday that 33 SEC employees and contractors nationwide were investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for viewing sexually explicit sites at work from 2005 to 2010. The OIG report says many were senior-level employees. In December, Denver attorney Kevin D. Evans’s Freedom of Information Act request for the names of the employees was denied. In a letter dated March 3, the SEC responded to Evans by listing the offices of the employees. They were in Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington, D.C. A previous report said 24 employees who were investigated resigned, were suspended or disciplined.
  • Government-issued documents are the most popular target for identity thieves. And the tactics cyber criminals use to get them are growing more sophisticated. Those findings from the latest Federal Trade Commission data on consumer complaints. Each year, the FTC gathers data using a secure, online system. The Consumer Sentinel Network logged a million complaints in 2010. Nearly a fifth cited identity theft, making that the top concern among citizens. The most common goal of ID theft is to fraudulently obtain government benefits, according to the FTC report.
  • Foreign Services Officers are being sent into war zones and other places around the world, poorly trained and ill equipped. That’s the conclusion of new report from the Academy of Diplomacy and the Stimson Center. The report says under-investment in diplomacy and development means the U.S. military is taking on roles traditionally handled by diplomats. It also says the Foreign Service is over-stretched and under prepared. The report offers eight recommendations. Along with better funding they want every new Foreign Service Officer to complete a year of advanced study before they can move up in ranks.
  • The Office of Personnel Management is getting 52,000 square feet on North Capitol Street in Northwest. The General Services Administration signed the five year lease, giving OPM employees a place to work while their headquarters on E Street is brought up to the federal government’s green building standards. The Washington Business Journal reports OPM will move into the newly renovated Union Square project later this year. The Internal Revenue Service will be there, too. That agency agreed to a more-than-100-thousand square food lease in February.
  • The Senate has passed legislation to update the U.S. patent system. The bill sailed through on a 95 to 5 vote. It would give the Patent and Trademark office more power to set its own budget. PTO could raise fees and use the money to start hacking away at its backlog of 700,000. The bill also would change the first-to-invent preference to one that rewards first-to-file. To make the bill more palatable to the House, the Senate version avoided specifying damages for patent infringement cases.
  • The FBI has begun to phase out it’s old fingerprint system – replacing it with a next generation identification system. Lockheed Martin developed to the new Integrated Automated Fingerprint ID system. It allows the FBI to run searches faster and more accurately – as well as search through images. When it’s completed it will allow Investigators to electronically share information with more that 18,000 law enforcement agencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
  • You might soon be able to fly to Cuba from BWI/Marshall. Customs and Border Protection is allowing flights from eight airports in the U.S, and BWI is one of them. The move allows passenger charter air service to and from Cuba, after the Obama administration loosened regulations on travel sanctions. The new rules allow for expanded religious, academic, journalistic and cultural travel between the two countries. But there are more regulatory and procedural steps for the airports to complete before the flights can begin.
  • If you thought the President Obama’s deficit commission had faded into oblivion, think again. Co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are on the stump, noodging lawmakers to adopt their recommendations. Said former Senator Simpson, this baby’s out there and it’s not going away. Federal Times reports, the commissioners have labeled their lobbying efforts The Moment of Truth. They were supported at a news conference by Senators Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican. The Commission’s report last fall contained a long list of deficit-reduction proposals.

More news links

US drug czar faints twice in Mass., hospitalized

Space shuttle Discovery heads home to retirement

Flight 93 families seek money for 9/11 memorial

White House party-crasher booted from ‘Celebrity Rehab’ (CNN)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** The Armed Services are too white — and too male. That’s the assessment from the Military Leadership Diversity Commission. How do you change that? We’ll talk to an expert.

** And President Obama said he wanted to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facicility. That proved too difficult. We’ll talk to a reporter who just returned from that Caribbean Naval base about what comes next.

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