Wednesday morning federal headlines – Aug. 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...

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.

  • Though doubtful it will really happen, the Obama administration is knuckling down and planning for sequestration. The automatic budget cuts don’t go into effect until January, but the administration is under pressure from Congress to have a plan just in case. Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeff Zients will begin meeting with agency heads. The first order of business will be to figure out which programs will be exempt from the sequester. OMB has already ruled Veteran Affairs programs off limits. Last week, Congress approved the Sequestration Transparency Act. It requires the President to provide a detailed report to Congress on how sequestration will be applied. The White House hasn’t said whether the president will sign it. (Federal News Radio)
  • Congressional leaders confirmed they have a deal to keep the government operating, even though there’s no final budget for 2013. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) agreed on a six-month continuing resolution to begin Oct. 1. Congress is about to recess, so the bill won’t be voted on until lawmakers return after Labor Day. Reid said the CR will provide stability. Both parties want to avoid a potential government shutdown a month before national elections. A continuing resolution would let agencies operate at 2012 budget levels. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Justice Department says the GOP is distorting the facts surrounding a botched gun-tracking program. It called a new report a collection of “distortions” and “now-debunked conspiracy theories.” It said the report wrongly portrays the flawed tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious as the brainchild of the current administration, when it began under former President George W Bush. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sponsored the report. In it, they blamed five Justice employees in particular for continuing the operation, even though they had lost control of it. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with one of the guns that the department had tried to track. (Federal News Radio)

  • It took more than a decade and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars. But at last the FBI has a working, electronic case file system. It’s called Sentinel. The bureau switched on the system this month, and now reports 30,000 employees are using it. Jeff Johnson, the FBI’s chief technology officer, said Sentinel is a big win. It replaces a so-called green-screen system that relied mostly on paper. Johnson said Sentinel lets FBI agents share information worldwide in seconds. Lockheed Martin is the FBI’s prime contractor for Sentinel. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Homeland Security Department’s chief privacy officer is stepping down. Mary Ellen Callahan’s last day will be Aug. 11. She plans to return to her previous employer, the law firm Hogan and Hartson. Callahan has also been the top Freedom of Information officer at DHS. Unlike other privacy officers, Callahan has the authority to investigate programs and operations for potential privacy violations. Callahan looked into the DHS inspector general’s office. She found its contractor using an unencrypted storage device containing confidential financial information from several DHS agencies. Deputy chief privacy officer Jonathan Cantor will become acting privacy officer. (Federal News Radio)
  • Health and Human Services opened the doors to a brand new anti-fraud office in Baltimore. But members of Congress invited for the tour are skeptical it will produce much. The $3.6 million center houses a computer system designed to screen Medicare and Medicaid payment claims and head off fraudulent ones. Medicare’s anti-fraud chief, Peter Budetti, said communications between the center and field investigators is key to speeding up investigations. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he wants more information about the system and whether it’s really working. Medicare fraud amounts to an estimated $60 billion per year. (Federal News Radio)

    Army Staff Sergeant Vincent Hancock has earned a new a medal, but it isn’t coming from military. Hancock won a gold medal in skeet shooting at the Olympics in London yesterday. He also won gold at the Beijing Olympics four years ago. He’ll finish his military service in November…after which he hopes to start his own shooting academy in his home state of Georgia. (Associated Press and Army.mil)

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