Friday morning federal headlines – July 6, 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...

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.

  • President Barack Obama appointed Richard Ginman as chairman of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board. For the past year, Ginman has been director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. The retired rear admiral also worked in the private sector. He led General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems maritime information unit. The GAT Board is modeled after a board created to track stimulus spending in 2009. The new board will track all federal spending. Board members include chief financial officers and inspectors general. Ginman succeeds Earl Devaney, who retired in December. (Federal News Radio)
  • Tracking federal programs to avoid duplication could be a costly undertaking. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Taxpayers Right to Know Act would cost $100 million over five years. Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) sponsored the bill in the House. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) sponsored a similar bill. The legislation would force agencies to report spending, administrative expenses, number of recipients and number of employees involved for each program. For good measure, agencies would also have to track contractor support. In its scoring, CBO pointed out the cost of the bills has no offsetting revenue. (CBO)
  • The Transportation Department is funneling new money into projects to help veterans and military families get around. DoT is distributing $29 million to local governments and transit agencies throughout the country. The Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative helps pay for tech upgrades. They include smart-phone apps and real-time transit bus locators, as well as software that helps connect drivers with people who need a ride and interactive kiosks at military facilities and veterans’ sites. Agency officials said they were hoping these programs could help veterans find jobs and get to work. (Federal News Radio)
  • One-fifth of the nation’s postmasters may be leaving their jobs thanks to a buyout offer from the Postal Service. The Federal Times reported postmasters had until Monday to sign up for a $20,000 incentive. As many as 4,200 of the 21,000 postmasters nationwide did. The Postal Service plans to reduce hours at thousands of rural post offices to save money, mostly on labor costs. A smaller incentive for mail-handlers did not go over as well. It was just $15,000. Seven percent of mail handlers have taken it. (Federal Times)
  • The General Services Administration is considering lowering the boom on hotel allowances by 30 percent, Federal Times reported. GSA isn’t saying exactly what it will do, but travel industry people say they’re hearing the drumbeats. They say GSA wants to lower its average per diems by taking higher-priced hotels out of the picture. That could relegate traveling feds to suburban digs even when visiting inner city locations. The White House has ordered 2013 travel spending to come down by 30 percent. (Federal Times)
  • Slightly fewer feds retired this spring than the Office of Personnel Management projected. That helped the agency tackle its backlog of retirement claims. About 48,000 retirees are waiting for their benefits from OPM. That’s down from a high of 61,000 in January. That’s when the agency rolled out a new, low-tech strategy. It hired more people, expanded their work hours and planned to upgrade technology one component at a time. (Federal News Radio)

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