Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – June 21st

Weather satellite funding threatens forecasting, Cyber seen as growth market, President\'s Park plans submitted

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 acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to resign, reports CNN. Kenneth Melson has come under fire recently because of a mishandled weapons operation. Three ATF agents blew the whistle on the program, called “Fast and Furious.” They told a Congressional committee hearing last week that ATF tracked the purchase of weapons and then let them “walk” across the U.S. border into Mexico. It was meant to follow weapons traffickers, but two of those weapons were used in the murder of border patrol agent Brian Terry last year. Melson may resign in the next day or two.
  • A looming gap in weather satellites could put a damper on forecasting. Federal Times reports Congressional budget cutting will delay the launch of a key weather satellite. It was scheduled to launch in 2016 but will be delayed 18 months. Officials at the National Weather Service worry forecasts could become less clear during that time, making it harder to track hurricanes and tornadoes. With more cuts possible, more delays are possible.
  • The Office of Management and Budget is focusing on your agency’s customer service. OMB wants agencies to develop what it calls Fast Track systems to speed up responses to customer complaints. Agencies are expected to get timely feedback on service delivery without burdening citizens with too much paperwork. Fast Track is a collaboration between Jeff Zients, OMB’s deputy director for management, and Cass Sunstein, OMB’s top regulator. They are telling agency managers to gather information about customer awareness of their programs, and whether citizens like them or not.
  • Virginia Senator Mark Warner has introduced a bill to improve tracking of federal spending. It’s called the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA. It mirrors a bill in the House sponsored by California Representative Darryl Issa. DATA would establish a website to consolidate spending data from all federal agencies. And it would set up a standard reporting format that agencies would use to report their funding activities. The bill also establishes the Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Board. FAST would supercede the current Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
  • It is back to the drawing board, almost, for HHS. The Government Accountability Office says that the General Services Administration must reevaluate the bids for the Health and Human Services offices. GSA awarded the deal to the Parklawn building in Rockville, Maryland back in March, but the Washington Business Journal reports GSA’s evaluation was flawed, because the agency didn’t evaluate offers the way the solicitation said it would. And, GAO says GSA failed to properly document the selection decision. GSA has 60 days to respond to the ruling and list its next steps.
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission stands to lose its right to lease its own office space. And some officials are in danger of violating the anti-deficiency act. Those are just some of the findings in an SEC Inspector General study. GovExec reports IG David Kotz looked into the SEC’s leasing of 900,000 square feet of new office space in Southwest Washington. He called the process deeply flawed and unsound, and resulted in far more space than the agency needed. It committed the SEC to more than a half billion dollars in rent over 10 years. Congress gave the SEC leasing authority in 1990.
  • Even though there’s plenty of pressure to cut costs at the Pentagon, the top strategist for Boeing says there are growth opportunities in the world of cyber. The Wall Street Journal reports Chris Raymond of Boeing says that cyber protection is one area that is a bright spot among the otherwise dim prospects for Defense acquisition projects. He says that, among other things, cyber protection offers some of the better chances to land new U.S. orders.
  • The National Library of Medicine is launching Medline Plus CONNECT. The free service allows health care and health IT providers to link up to patient portals and electronic health records on the MedlinePlus.gov website. The CONNECT portal accepts requests for information on diagnoses, medications, and lab tests. It then returns up-to-date health information from NIH, other federal agencies and trusted health care providers.
  • A super stealth, James-bond style Navy ship is headed to the scrap heap. The Sea Shadow was built in 1985 by DARPA and Lockheed Martin. It was the Navy’s first experimental stealth ship. The Navy had planned to salvage the ship by selling it or putting it on display, but after five years and millions of dollars spent there weren’t any viable takers. It’s now slated for dismatling and recycling, reports Yahoo!News. The ship was the inspiration for the stealth ship in the 1997 James Bond film, “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
  • Architects have offered up five proposals for improving the park near the White House, and now the public can weigh in. The National Capital Planning Commission is asking the public to comment on its design competition. The goal is to improve the look and of President’s Park South near the White House. The designs are on display at the White House Visitor Center. The public can also see them on the National Capitol Planning Commission website.

More news links

With troop cuts, Obama also will juggle war team

FDA issues graphic cigarette labels

Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites

KBR worker says she was drugged and raped in Iraq

PROMISES, PROMISES: WH solar panels are no-shows

Where have all the snow globes gone? To the state surplus store (Austin Statesman)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on In Depth with Francis Rose:

–The Administration’s government reorganization efforts are under way. The Government Accountability Office’s Chief Operating Officer, Pat Dalton, will talk about redundancy and duplication at your agency.

–Ten ways to waste your bid-and-proposal dollars, from an expert who knows.

Join Francis from 3 to 7 pm on 1500 AM or on your computer.

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