GAO to review security costs of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips

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

• How much is security costing the government when President Donald Trump goes to his Mar-a-Lago resort? The Government Accountability Office aims to find out. Reuters is reporting the agency will also look into how classified information is kept secure at the Florida resort. GAO is conducting the review after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns. (Reuters)

• An Obama-era contracting regulation is being thrown out by the Trump White House. President Donald Trump overturned the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule requiring companies disclose violations for 14 labor law protections that occurred in the past three years. Critics say the regulations amounted to “blacklisting” contractors. (Federal News Radio)

• The Air Force will meet with airline companies in May to try and stem its pilot shortage. Pilots are moving from the service to commercial airlines instead of reenlisting, causing a deficit of more than 600 pilots. The Air Force hopes to create a public private partnership that will be a win-win for both the service and the airlines. (Federal News Radio)

• President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of the Air Force will have to cut several business connections before taking the job. Former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) was already expected to give up her salary as the president of the South Dakota School of Mines, but according to ethics forms disclosed on Monday, she would also have to divest herself of investments in 16 separate Defense contractors. Her ethics agreement also pledges to sell holdings in three other firms, including Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company. Wilson is set to go before the Senate Armed Services Committee for her confirmation hearing later this week.

• An online job portal offered by the Labor Department was breached. America’s JobLink is a multi-state web-based system rrun by America’s Job Link Alliance–Technical Support. AJLA-TS said a third-party hacker exploited a vulnerability in its code and the names, Social Security Numbers and birthdays of job seekers in 10 states have been compromised. (America’s Job Link Alliance)

• The Internal Revenue Service experienced problems with its system for assuring identity of taxpayers who file online. Weaknesses in the program known as IP PIN mean taxpayers continue as victims of fraud from misuse of Social Security numbers. The Tax inspector general said IRS should have shut down and replaced the six-digit identifier system after a 2015 security breach. The IG made five recommendations for improving program management, including an authentication risk assessment. (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration)

• Federal shop stewards used slightly more official time in fiscal 2014 than in 2012. That was the last time the Office of Personnel Management published a governmentwide report on official time. Employees used a little less than 3.5 million hours, less than a 1 percent increase since 2012. Thirty-seven agencies reduced how much of it employees used, 20 agencies used more. (Federal News Radio)

• The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has new leadership in its C-suite. Suzanne Tosini is the board’s new chief operating officer. She’s spent time in the private sector and at Treasury’s Office of Financial Stability and at the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Ranita Anderson is the board’s new chief technology officer. She most recently comes from the National Institutes of Health. She also’s been at the Defense Department and NASA.

• The White House’s new Office of American Innovation will take on one of the stickiest wickets in government — procurement. The administration announced the new office, to be led by Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and special adviser, yesterday. Kushner will bring in private sector expertise to figure out how agencies can buy technology better. The office also will modernize federal agency IT and identify transformational infrastructure projects. The President said in a memo that the office will scale proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation. (Federal News Radio)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.