Federal Newscast

Former Marine cops to stealing parts from Marine One squadron

In today's Federal Newscast, a former Marine staff sergeant pleads guilty to stealing from the helicopter squadron responsible for transporting the president.

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

May 25, 2017 8:03 am

3 min read

A former Marine pleaded guilty to stealing equipment from the helicopter squadron that transports the president. According to the Justice Department, between 2013 and 2015, Branden Baker stole at least 51 image intensifiers tubes and other night vision parts from Marine Helicopter Squadron One. He later sold the stolen parts, worth nearly $100,000, on eBay. Baker at the time was an active duty Marine staff sergeant, so he had access to the squadron which based out of the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. He faces 10 years in prison and will have to pay $94,000 in restitution. (Department of Justice)

The House passed new legislation to change the veterans appeals process within the Veterans Affairs Department. The bill does not address the backlog of about 470,000 pending appeals. VA Secretary David Shulkin said the department needs to come up with a new solution for that. VA will hire 164 new people to work at the Board of Veterans Appeals next year. (House Veterans Affairs Committee)

The Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act cleared its first congressional test. It passed the Senate VA Committee and now goes to the full Senate body. The committee rejected amendments to change some of the provisions on VA employees’ due process procedures. (Senate Veterans Affairs Committee)

While the Veterans Affairs Department is one of the only civilian agencies that could get a budget boost in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget, it did cut VA IT spending by 5 percent. The president proposed $186 billion for VA. Most will go toward health and community care. It also lets VA hire about 7,000 new employees. (Federal News Radio)

The Homeland Security Department wants to give major cyber programs a funding boost in 2018. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly encouraged lawmakers to support the nearly $200 million increase in funding and the growth of his cyber workforce by more than 170 employees in 2018. Kelly told House Appropriations subcommittee lawmakers that the White House wants to plus up the National Protection and Programs Directorate’s cybersecurity activities to $971 million. Of that, DHS would like to spend $397 million on the continued deployment and enhancements of the EINSTEIN program. It also wants $279 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation or CDM Program to protect federal civilian networks. (Department of Homeland Security)

The government wants to get into the real estate flipping business. The General Services Administration wants to create a new revolving fund to use as seed money to fix up and then sell off old federal buildings and other property. GSA hopes the Asset Proceeds and Space Management Fund will help continue to shrink the federal real property footprint. The revolving fund would be replenished through the sale of the underutilized property and a new interagency board would manage it. (Federal News Radio)

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants to avoid one perennial, partisan argument. In testifying to Congress, Mnuchin urged members to raise the debt ceiling before they depart on summer recess. Treasury is already on borrowed time. It’s been temporarily using employee pension funds to keep things afloat. Mnuchin worried if the government runs out of cash, and there’s no Congressional action on the ceiling, Treasury would be unable to go to the bond market to raise more. (Associated Press)

The National Weather Service may be experiencing a talent shortage. It more than doubled its vacancies over the past six years, from 211 open positions to 455. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees it, agreed with auditors that a review of how the agency is handling the hiring backlog is needed. (Government Accountability Office)

More workers are desired for the Air Force’s command support staff as well. The branch plans to increase its CSS staff by 1,600 by the year 2022, reaching a total of 6,300 people. The personnel addition calls for 170 officers, 469 enlisted and 961 civilians. The Air Force needs the personnel to fill duties it took off of airmen’s shoulders to lessen their workloads. (Air Force)