Friday federal headlines – November 14, 2014

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows each day. Our headlines are updated twice per day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon — with the latest news affecting federal employees and contractors.

• Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe announced his retirement Friday amid annual Postal Services losses surpassing $5 billion and ongoing battles with Congress over cost-cutting moves. USPS Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Megan Brennan will replace Donahoe on Feb. 1. Brennan will be the first female postmaster general. (a href=”http://www.federalnewsradio.com/314/3742400/Postmaster-General-Patrick- Donahoe-to-retire” target=”_blank”>Federal News Radio)
• Senior executives at the Veterans Affairs Department involved in some sort of misconduct could lose some of their pension benefits under a new bill from House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, GovExec reports. The new bill lets VA Secretary Bob McDonald take away the government’s contribution from an employee’s pension for the period of time the employee misbehaved. (GovExec)
• Federal managers will soon have fewer annual reports to Congress to deal with, as the House unanimously passed Senate amendments to the Government Reports Elimination Act Thursday. Among the eliminated reports — from 29 different agencies — are a Homeland Security tome on imported products with dog and cat fur and an annual report by Veterans Affairs on procurement of health care products. The House also passed the Presidential and Federal Records Act, which is designed to improve public access to a President’s records. (Federal News Radio)
• Another head has rolled in the ongoing drama at the Veterans Affairs Department. Terry Wolf, the director of the Pittsburgh Healthcare System, has been fired. She’s been on paid leave since June. The stated cause of her dismissal was conduct unbecoming a senior executive. At least six patients died and 16 more were sickened when an outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease hit the Pittsburgh hospital in 2011 and 2012. Published reports say Wolf also tried to downplay the waiting list issue when speaking with members of Congress, who were outraged to find the VA had thousands of veterans waiting months for medical appointments. Wolf is the fourth senior VA executive removed under the VA reform Congress passed in September. David MacPherson has been the acting director of the Pittsburgh Medical System. (Federal News Radio )
• The Justice Department intercepts cell phone information on tens of thousands of Americans using devices in small airplanes that mimic cell phone towers, the Wall Street Journal reports. The U.S. Marshals Service program has been going on since 2007. Its aim is to track movements of suspected criminals using cell phones’ unique identifiers. Sources say phone identity information not associated with suspects is discarded. Justice officials would not confirm existence of the program to the Journal. (Wall Street Journal)
• Top Pentagon leaders have warned Congress that U.S. military action against the Islamic State militants is just the beginning. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the United States and its 16-nation coalition have made progress stalling ISIS in some cases, but that the job is difficult and will take years. He and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told a House panel that some American troops might be needed to do more than train the Iraqi Army. Dempsey said he’s considering whether they’ll be needed to fight alongside Iraqi soldiers. He and Hagel spoke as the Obama administration is requesting $5.6 billion in supplemental spending to continue the campaign against ISIS. (Federal News Radio)
• The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved two high-level nominations to the Homeland Security Department. On voice vote, the committee recommended Russell Deyo for under secretary for management, and Sarah Saldana for assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement. Both now move to the Senate for a vote. Deyo worked at the consumer products company Johnson and Johnson for 27 years, where he was general counsel. Saldana has been a U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas for three years. Before that, she was the deputy criminal chief for the fraud and public corruption section. (Federal News Radio)
• Congressional auditors aren’t waiting to see how the DATA Act, passed earlier this year, comes out. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said he’ll visit the Treasury Department and White House next week to check progress on establishing government-wide data standards. The DATA Act is aimed at unifying grant and contract spending information across the government. It’s up to Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget to come up with the standards. Dodaro, speaking at a conference on analytics, threw a little cold water on federal and industry officials touting the power of big data, saying that if the data quality is not good, agencies are limited in their abilities to use it. (Federal News Radio)
• The Pentagon says it wants to change the program providing excess military equipment to law enforcement agencies. Defense Department Undersecretary Alan Estevez oversees the program. He said DoD will work on improving discussions with the Justice Department and Homeland Security. The Pentagon will also work with state coordinators to make sure law enforcement agencies properly train their employees. The surplus gear program came under scrutiny in August after clashes between protesters and police in Ferguson, Mo., became violent. The White House has ordered a review of the program. (Federal News Radio)
• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel orders top-to-bottom changes for the nation’s nuclear force. He said he’ll spend billions of dollars to fix problems with leadership, security and morale. Hagel ordered a review of the forces in February after an exam-cheating scandal erupted at an Air Force missile base. The Pentagon’s review called the force structure “incoherent,” and said that’s why it can’t be properly managed. The review also found a disconnect between what nuclear force leaders say and what they actually do. Pentagon officials said Hagel will propose spending between $1 to $10 billion to change the nuclear force. Hagel is scheduled to announce more details of the plan later today. (Federal News Radio)
• Auditors say federally-run Native American schools need more oversight on spending. A report from the Government Accountability Office found that the schools improperly spent nearly $14 million. In one case, a hacker transferred $1.7 million from a school to an off-shore bank account. The Bureau of Indian Education overseas 180 schools for more than 40,000 Native American students. In fiscal 2014, the schools received a total of about $830 million. GAO found the Bureau lacks sufficient staff to oversee school spending. The Bureau also lacks written procedures to monitor school spending, and it doesn’t use a risk-based approach. (GAO)
• Hundreds of federal contract workers in Washington D.C. go on a one-day strike. They ask for wages of at least $15 per hour and better working conditions. The employees provide food and janitorial services at the Capitol, Smithsonian museums and other federal buildings. About 400 employees participated in the protest, walking off the job Thursday and marching on the Capitol lawn. Some lawmakers also joined the protest. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said employees should not be working below the poverty line. President Barack Obama has raised contractor minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, starting in January. (Federal News Radio)
• A former official at the Homeland Security Department says more employees than first thought are victims of a cyber breach. The breach earlier this year exposed private information about 25,000 DHS employees. The hackers first hit contractor USIS and then were able to easily move to agency databases. Chris Cummiskey recently left his post as acting undersecretary for management at DHS. He said the government is still investigating how many more employees were affected by the breach. But the number could be thousands. Cummiskey said agencies need to share information about cyber breaches as soon as they’re notified. (Federal News Radio)

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