Federal Drive

Tuesday morning federal headlines – May 1, 2012

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp discuss throughout the show each day. T...

Federal News Network Staff

May 1, 2012 9:24 am

4 min read

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp 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.

In a development wonks are sure to love, the Federal Register and Regulations.gov are shaking hands. The online version of the Federal Register, FR-2, now displays comments and other documents submitted to Regulations.gov. According to a Federal Register blog posting by staffer Michael White, the linking required crawling through a lot of electronic haystacks. He credited the keepers of Regulations.gov with publishing an application programming interface that allowed the hookup. The result? Readers of FR-2 won’t run into dead ends when they click on links to background information. (Federal Register)
The State Department is helping Mexican authorities intercept and analyze phone calls and web communications. The agency posted a contract notice for a monitoring system. It said the system would help officials prevent major crimes like drug trafficking and terrorism. NextGov reported it was the second time the State Department has helped pay for a surveillance system in Mexico. Civil liberties groups worry the technology could allow officials to spy on Americans’ conversations too. (NextGov)
The General Services Administration has launched a federal social-media registry. When completed, it would list all verified government accounts on 22 different services, including You Tube, Facebook and Twitter. Without a “dot gov” or “dot mil” behind the name, it can be difficult to tell whether a social media account is really owned by the government or an imposter. GSA said the registry would clear up the confusion about a lot of social media accounts. But Federal Computer Week reviewed the site. It cautioned that the registry was incomplete and was missing a lot of official Twitter handles, for example. (Federal Computer Week)
Government auditors are saying the federal workers’ comp program is due for a makeover. They’ve got about 200 ideas for how the new program should look. The Government Accountability Office reviewed dozens of reports by various agencies and their inspectors general. Four out of every five reports complained about a lack of oversight. Monitoring workers’ comp is not a full-time job at many agencies. But GAO said inattention was costing the government a lot of money. The program paid out $2.8 billion to injured federal employees in 2010. Senators passed a bill to cut benefits for older recipients who could qualify for less-generous federal pensions. (Federal News Radio)
Congress appears to be closing in on a transportation bill to maintain hightway and transit aid. Unless the House and Senate can agree, funding ends June 30. But election year pressures are driving Republicans and Democrats to find compromises. Neither side wants to be tagged with pinching off funding tied to jobs. Republicans are still insisting on the Keystone XL oil pipeline in their version. That’s a non-starter for the Obama administration. But lobbyists said the prospects were good for a final bill. A conference committee gets to work May 8. (Federal News Radio)
The Office of Personnel Management has issued new advice for how to hire people based on their brains and not on their years of service. Its latest draft guide to competency-based qualifications also comes with requirements for clerical and administrative positions. Earlier competency guides covered human resources and IT management. OPM is asking for comments on the draft guidance by June 29. (Federal News Radio)
A top Environmental Protection Agency official is stepping down because of a comment he made two years ago. Al Armendariz was criticized by Republican lawmakers for what they said was symptomatic of the agency’s attitude toward the oil-and-gas industry. Armendariz had said that he would “crucify” companies that violated environmental laws. He said he regretted those words and they do not, in fact, reflect his work. He is an environmental engineer by training. He oversaw the oil-rich South Central region that includes Texas and Louisiana for the EPA. Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have blamed the agency for high gas prices. (Federal News Radio)
The Office of Personnel Management is taking steps to improve its handling of the government’s most prestigious fellowship program after an embarrassing snafu. Director John Berry has written a letter to lawmakers explaining the changes to the Presidential Management Fellows Program. He said OPM has awarded a contract to remake the application and assessment processes by September. It is also creating a new database of finalists, improving communication and adopting quality controls. OPM mistakenly told 300 PMFP semi-finalists in January that they were accepted into the program when they were not. That got the attention of lawmakers. They were already concerned about the agency’s handling of other technology systems like the recruitment site USAJobs.gov. (Federal News Radio)
New federal workers could step on an automatic escalator to a better financial future. That’s if a bill from Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) becomes law. Akaka’s draft bill would automatically escalate the percentage of salaries new employees contribute to their TSP G-Fund accounts. New hires are automatically enrolled at 3 percent. That would rise to 6 percent over three years under Akaka’s bill. Federal Times reported a survey shows many feds contribute to TSP at below 5 percent, the maximum matched by the federal government. New military service members would not be affected by Akaka’s bill. (Federal Times)