4 new schools to give federal employees scholarships and lower tuition rates

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

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, the Office of Personnel Management makes agreements with four new universities for federal employees looking for more education.

• Federal employees have access to lower tuition rates and scholarships at four more universities. The Office of Personnel Management now has agreements with Georgetown University’s Continuing Studies School, the University of Maryland’s Business School, Drexel University Online, and Southern New Hampshire University. OPM said these universities offer classes that address some of the government’s mission-critical occupation skills gaps, like acquisition, human resources and auditing. (Chief Human Capital Officers Council)

• The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association said the fiscal 2018 budget cycle will be its top priority and biggest challenge. NARFE predicted House lawmakers will add familiar provisions from its 2016 budget. Some of which proposed higher health care premiums for federal employees and more contributions to federal retirement. (Federal News Radio)

• An influential good-government group has advice for federal managers trying to implement President Trump’s executive order on reorganizing the government. The order asked agencies to look for ways to cut costs and end unnecessary programs. National Academy of Public Administration President Terry Gerton said agencies don’t have to start from scratch in looking for redundancies and other inefficiencies. She cited the annual Government Accountability Office report on duplicative programs, and said executives should use it as a starting point. (National Academy of Public Administration)

• Census Bureau employees are getting an easier way to approve documents in the agency’s performance management system. Census said it will deploy a new cloud-based system for all 15,000 employees to digitally sign forms. Census hired VASCO Data Security to provide its eSignLive software-as-a-service to its headquarters and field offices. All employees will be able to submit and sign performance review forms electronically on any device using eSignLive. Census expects the software to reduce the turn-around time per employee by 70 percent and save more than one million dollars annually. (GlobalNewswire)

• The Office of Personnel Management is encouraging agency managers to show their support for the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. OPM will administer the 2017 survey in two waves starting in May. Each survey will be open for six weeks. OPM wants agency managers to remind employees they can complete the survey on official time, and their opinions will be taken seriously. (Chief Human Capital Officers Council)

• As the Marine Corps and possibly other military services deal with a nude photo scandal, the Navy has started a new leadership program focusing on character in its leaders. The service laid out how it will implement its leadership development framework. Part of the plan is cultivating sailors who avoid bad decisions. It appoints community leaders to develop sailors as leaders. (Federal News Radio)

• A federal grand jury has indicted nine more military officers in a long-running investigation into bribes by the military contractor known as “Fat Leonard.” All of the latest defendants in the scandal are relatively senior naval officers. According to the Justice Department, Fat Leonard, otherwise known as Leonard Francis, bribed them with sex parties, luxury hotel rooms and meals in exchange for an inside track on contracts for his company, which delivered ship husbanding services to Navy vessels in southeast Asia. The most senior official on Tuesday’s indictment list was Rear. Adm. Bruce Lovelace, who served as a top Navy intelligence official up until his retirement last year. (Federal News Radio)

• President Trump announces more nominations for key roles in his administration. The White House said James Donovan, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, is to be named as deputy secretary of the Treasury, and Eric Hagan is picked to be Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. A role he previously served in an acting capacity during the Bush administration.

• The White House has withdrawn 23 pending Senate nominations made during the Obama administration. The nominations include the inspectors general of OPM, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Department. There are about 70 IG positions, and half of them require a senate confirmation. About 30 percent of those senate-confirmed positions are vacant. (Federal News Radio)

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