Thursday morning federal headlines – July 5

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.

• The Army says it has enough tanks. Officials thought suspending production for a few years would be an easy way to save money as the military faces sharp spending cuts. But Congress begs to differ. Some Ohio lawmakers are trying to restore funds for the Army to keep buying Abrams tanks made in that state. About 800 welders and machinists are caught in the middle. General Dynamics operates the plant for the government. It says it would be cheaper to keep the plant open with minimal production than shut it down and restart it. But the Army says not all that money should come from the United States. It suggests the plant could fill orders from other countries. (Federal News Radio)
• The Veterans Affairs Department has called a moratorium on downgrading low-wage service workers at its health care facilities. Protestors had staged a march from VA headquarters to Lafayette Square in front of the White House last month. Many of the employees were represented by the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE’s Northern Virginia Council president Alma Lee reported the VA’s change in stance. The department’s HR Management Office issued a letter calling for a temporary stand-down on changes to lower graded actions. It agreed to establish a classification oversight working group. VA did not immediately respond to a request for comments. (Federal News Radio)
• While other agencies close regional offices in attempts to save money, the Patent and Trademark Office is moving in the opposite direction. For the first time, the office will expand operations beyond the Beltway. It plans to open four satellite branches. A Detroit office opens next week, followed by operations in Dallas, Denver and Silicon Valley. The expansion is mandated by a new law aimed to modernized the patent system. The agency says it wants to attract top intellectual-property experts who can work closely with entrepreneurs, as it tries to catch up on about 640,000 unexamined patent applications. (U.S. Patent and Trade)
• Computer giant Dell has acquired Quest Software. Dell, a major federal contractor, wants to expand its service business. Quest publishes identity management and access control applications, and system performance tools. It also has a large federal presence. Dell paid 2.4 billion dollars for Quest, beating out a private venture firm. Dell did about 1.8 billion dollars in federal sales last year, according to Washington Technology. The company’s total 2011 sales reached 61 billion dollars. (Federal News Radio)
• Prosecutors are not filing criminal charges against former Commerce Secretary John Bryson. They say a seizure led Bryson to get into three car accidents on June 9. Bryson had hit one car twice, spoke briefly with the occupants and then drove on to hit another vehicle a few minutes later. Police found him unconscious in his Lexus. They had cited him for felony hit-and-run. But tests did not show any signs of alcohol or drugs…except for a sleeping pill…and two doctors had diagnosed Bryson with a stroke. He resigned from the Commerce Department two weeks ago, saying he did not want his health to interfere with his job. (Federal News Radio)
• Base realignment and closure, or BRAC, turned out to be a lot more expensive than the Pentagon predicted. A new GAO report pegs the cost of the most recent BRAC round at 35 billion dollars. That’s 67 percent more than original estimates. GAO says the main culprit is construction costs. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s new headquarters more than doubled in cost to 2.6 billion dollars. The latest BRAC round started in 2005. It involved more than 800 locations and 125 thousand people. The Pentagon doesn’t expect to see financial payback until 2025. (Federal News Radio)
• U.S. forces in Afghanistan are starting today, to reroute supplies through Pakistan. They’re ending a seven-month run of using a longer and more expensive route to avoid that country. Pakistan agreed to let the United States use its supply routes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized for an incident that took place last November. 24 Pakistani troops were killed by U.S. forces. Causes of the incident are still in dispute. But the round-about supply routing has cost the military billions in fuel and other costs. Last month the Pentagon asked Congress to reprogram funds to cover the logistics overruns. (Federal News Radio)
• The Food and Drug Administration wants every medical device to have a unique ID. The agency says that could help it spot problems more quickly target recalls and improve patient safety. The FDA has conducted four pilot studies and is now seeking public comment on a new rule. It focuses on the highest-risk medical devices first — things like replacement hips, pacemakers and heart valves. It would exempt over-the-counter devices sold at retail stores. The FDA is acting in response to requirements in a 2007 law. (FDA)
• Twitter received 849 government requests for information about its users in the first half of 2012. The requests came from throughout the world. But 75 percent of them came from the U.S. federal agencies. Twitter has started providing biannual reports about U.S. and foreign government demands for information about its users. Google has been reporting its government requests for the last couple of years. Twitter, which is used by most agencies, says it provided the requested information in two thirds of the cases. (Federal News Radio)

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