Tuesday federal headlines – May 3, 2016

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive.

• A bill that prevents federal applicants who commit some sort of misconduct before or during the background check process from getting a security clearance is back on the table in the Senate. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) reintroduced the Security Clearance Accountability Reform and Enhancement Act. It also prevents employees who misbehave themselves from conducting background investigations. The bill also stops federal contractors who perform background investigations from doing their own final review for a security clearance. (Congress)

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted its final Quality Measure Development Plan, as required by Congress in a 2015 law. The idea is to apply quality measures to physicians and other clinicians. By 2019, CMS will pay more, or less, to eligible providers according to their quality, improvement, and efficiency efforts. (CMS)

• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory gets a new director. Dr. Michael Watkins has been selected to fill the role by the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Watkins has spent a lot of time with NASA already. He played a major role in the Mars Curiosity Rover and Mars Odyssey missions. He’s replacing Dr. Charles Elachi, who announced he was retiring back in October. (NASA)

• The Office of Personnel Management has proposed a rule in the Federal Register to ban criminal background checks from federal job applications. It said applicants should be judged primarily on qualifications, not criminal history. Agencies will only be able to run background checks after conditional offers of employment. The rule is open to comments until July 1. (Federal News Radio)

• The Veterans Affairs Department has named Gina Farrisee to be the new deputy chief of staff. She’s previously been the assistant secretary for human resources. Meghan Flanz will replace her as the new assistant HR secretary. These changes are effective May 9. Secretary Bob McDonald also officially swears in Michael Missal the department’s Office of Inspector General. (Federal News Radio)

• Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said the Defense Department is preparing to hand off the third offset strategy to the next presidential administration. Work said the House has been complimentary of the third offset strategy and has pledged to help carry it across administrations. The third offset was created to enhance U.S. military technology superiority by investing in robotics, artificial intelligence and other advances. (Federal News Radio)

• The National Small Business Person of 2016 is actually two people this year. The Small Business Administration announces Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell as this year’s winners. They own Equator Coffees and Teas, which is based in the San Francisco Bay area. SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet said the women took advantage of a small business loan, which allowed them to open a retail store. Contreras-Sweet said her agency is working to streamline the loan application process for small businesses. (Federal News Radio)

• Agencies are off the hook to submit a formal budget to the Office of Management and Budget by September. But federal budget officers, CFOs and program managers still have work to for 2018 in lieu of a formal budget. OMB Director Shaun Donovan tells agencies to instead prepare a budget database that includes a complete inventory of services. He asks agencies to work with OMB to identify programs that may need more immediate action by the new administration. (Federal News Radio)

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