Tuesday morning federal headlines – Dec. 6, 2011

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 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is launching an $18 billion competition. They’re looking for a way to buy a broad group of data center services. The Washington Post reports it is a 10-year contract vehicle that falls in line with the government’s mandate to consolidate data centers. The program is called Virtual IT Data Center. It is designed to set up a group of data centers owned and operated by various industry partners but all purchased through one procurement program. CMS hasn’t said how many contracts it will award, but it plans for a large-business program and a small-business version. (Washington Post)
• Astronomers may have found the “goldilocks” planet they’ve been looking for. They’ve been using the Kepler Space Telescope to find a planet that’s not too hot and not too cold, with the potential for liquid water on the surface. USA Today reports the planet, called Kepler 22-B, circles a star about 600 light years away. It is about 2-1/2 times wider than Earth and has an average temperature of 72 degrees. What they can’t tell yet is what the surface of the planet is like. They don’t know if the world is rocky, water-covered or something else. The Kepler space telescope discovery team announced the find at a briefing at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. (USA Today)
• The North American Aerospace Defense Command is gearing up to track Santa Claus. The mission is based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, the commander of NORAD, tells Defense.gov that their job is to make sure Santa can make his rounds safely. This is the 56th year NORAD has tracked Santa. His code name is “Big Red.” A website has been set up where children can find sleigh technical data, watch a video or play games. (Defense.gov)
• Delays in building the new Homeland Security Department headquarters are driving up the price of the project by at least half a billion dollars. Federal Times obtained the cost estimates. Budget cuts have caused a year’s worth of delays in construction at the former St. Elizabeth’s hospital site. The original plan accounts for $3.4 billion to build the DHS operations hub by 2016. Now the project could cost nearly $4 billion and take until fiscal 2021 to complete. (Federal Times)
• They’re calling it “Data.gov in a box.” The White House is teaming up with the Indian government to develop a ready made open government data platform that can be shared with other nations. It will be based on the United States’ Data.gov site and India’s India.gov.in. NextGov reports, the U.S. undertook the project as part of its commitments under the international Open Government Partnership. The goal is to help partner nations create a single site for disclosing data, that can then spur private industry to create apps that easily disseminate the information. The platform is scheduled to be completed by August 2012. (NextGov)
• The Office of Personnel Management has confirmed what senior federal managers already know — 2010 pay hikes were nearly non-existent. Fewer senior executives received performance bonuses. Bonuses they did receive were smaller than average. OPM’s latest annual compensation summary shows agencies started freezing pay even before it became administration policy. Average bonuses in 2010 were $13,000, about $800 less than a year earlier. Social Security Administration gave out neither raises nor bonuses to its executives. (Federal News Radio)
• Transportation Department officials are deciding whether Randy Babbitt will keep his job. The FAA administrator is on leave following an arrest for drunken driving, the Associated Press reported. The arrest took place Sunday evening in Fairfax City but wasn’t made public until yesterday afternoon. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he’s been conferring with legal council. Babbit is less than halfway through a five-year term appointment. The former Eastern Airlines pilot saw the FAA through a partial shutdown last summer when Congress could not agree on an authorization bill. (Federal News Radio)
• Health and Human Services will let its vast store of Medicare data be used to rate doctors and hospitals. For the first time, the claims database will be available to employers, insurance companies and consumer groups, according to the Associated Press. They’ll be able to create report cards on health care providers. Although individual doctors will be identifiable, patient data will stay anonymous. Doctors have objected to release of the data, worrying it could be misused. They’ll have the right to review data before it is released publicly. Available data covers both primary care physicians and specialists. (Federal News Radio)
• Verizon says it’s received the go-ahead to offer high-level online identity protection for federal personnel and visitors to dot-gov websites. NextGov reports, Verizon is the first company to gain that privilege. Verizon officials say the win could lead to contracts with agencies whose online transactions would require trusted identities. For example, IRS can’t allow direct tax return filing unless it can trust individuals’ cyber identities. The White House recently ordered federal agencies offering secure transactions to let citizens use commercially created credentials. (Federal News Radio)

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