Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – April 5th

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 Barack Obama steps deeper into the budget impasse on Capitol Hill. He summons leadership from both parties to a White House meeting today in hopes of reaching an agreement. The two sides remain at loggerheads over what, exactly, to cut in order to arrive at a budget for what remains of fiscal 2011. The latest continuing resolution expires Friday night. To follow its own rules, the House must post its final budget bill this evening to allow 72 hours before a vote. Both sides say they want to avoid a government shutdown. Meanwhile, federal employee unions plan for congressional call-ins today, so members can urge lawmakers to prevent shutdown.
• Two House Republicans step up their campaign to overhaul the federal pay system. Federal Times reports they ask the Government Accountability Office to look into what it would take to replace the G-S system with a performance-based system. The two congressmen are House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California. And Dennis Ross of Florida, chairman of the federal workforce subcommittee. Issa has been trying to end the practice of step pay increases not tied to performance.
• Even if they reach a budget agreement in the next day or so, the fights on Capitol Hill are just beginning. Next on deck is a nay or yea vote on raising the national debt ceiling. Some lawmakers say they’ll vote no without further budget curts. National Journal reports the country will hit its current statutory debt limit of 14.3 trillion dollars no later than May 16. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warns, failure by Congress to raise the debt limit would put the country into default. Geithner calls that option, unthinkable. Geithner adds, the Treasury could finagle a delay in default to about July 8.
• The Pentagon says it will begin to phase out military ID cards, with Social Security numbers printed on them. The change will begin starting on June first. Defense says instead of instead of printing socials, the ID cards will include a unique 10-digit DOD number. It’s part of a bigger Pentagon plan to protect service members, retirees and their families from identity theft.
• NSA is sharing some secrets. The National Security Agency wants to be sure small businesses know just what the agency needs and how to get a piece of its multi-billion dollar budget. The Baltimore Business Journal reports about 250 firms signed up to meet one-on-one with NSA and its web of contractors. Heather McColl, who heads up the NSA’s Office of Small Business Programs, says the event is about fostering relationships. The NSA expects to hold about 1,200 meetings with businesses and says it will need to hire about 1,800 people this year.
• The federal government extending it’s social media reach. The General Services administration is the first agency to open an account on Tumblr. GSA launching it’s USA.gov blog on the popular social networking and blogging site. USA.gov’s blog manager tells Federal Computer Week, GSA chose tumblr because of its social features allowing people to share, comment and connect. The new blog is the revamped version of the GSA’s former GovGab blog. It contains the archives for GovGab, which started in 2007 as a way to share helpful government information.

More news links

Petraeus seriously being considered for CIA director job (NPR)

Lost and Strayed: VA BlackBerrys (NextGov)

Twitter ‘Profile Spy’ Worm Spreads Virally Through Tweets (The Huffington Post)

ManTech wins $22.6M contract for work in Aberdeen (BaltimoreBusinessJournal)

Headscarves for female soldiers in Afghanistan defended (CNN)

AND THEN IT GOT WEIRD

Package Containing Severed Pig’s Foot Intercepted on Way to Rep. King’s Office (FoxNews)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on In Depth with Francis Rose:

*Just about everyone who works for you is wondering how the shutdown will affect them. Sally Katzen was OMB Deputy Director for Management during the 95-96 shutdown…she’ll help you get inside the minds of your people so you can keep them productive.

*You’re on a mission to save money…you’ll get some ideas from the people who do the work at your agency every day.

Join Francis from 1 to 7 pm on 1500 AM or on your computer.

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