Thursday federal headlines – December 18, 2014

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com reade...

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.

  • Transportation Security Administration Director John Pistole is leaving the TSA at the end of the month. He’ll be the new president of Anderson University in Indiana. Pistole has been the TSA administrator for about four and a half years. (Federal News Radio)
  • Lots of federal agencies will have new assignments under the Obama administration’s new policy toward Cuba. The State Department will lead, starting with Secretary John Kerry, who must have discussions with his Cuban counterpart. Eventually, State will reopen an embassy in Havana. Treasury and Commerce will have to rewrite regulations for financial transactions and trade. Homeland Security components will likely become involved, including the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. One goal of the new policy is to resolve longstanding disagreements over the maritime boundary between Cuba and the United States. The U.S. cut diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961. Secret negotiations between the Obama administration and Cuba started in early 2013. (Federal News Radio)
  • Top Air Force officials canceled their plans for involuntary force reductions in 2015. Secretary Deborah Lee James said the Air Force has already reduced far enough and won’t go any lower. The service cut more than 6,000 airmen in fiscal 2014 through force reductions, early retirement and voluntary separation pay. It said the reduction programs were necessary to cope with steep budget cuts. The service originally had plans for force reductions in 2015 but decided not to go forward with them. The Air Force is the smallest it’s been since it was established in 1947. (DoD)
  • If you’re taking a vacation day and a storm closes government offices, you still get charged for the vacation. No more excused absences. That’s the gist of a revised weather-closure policy from the Office of Personnel Management. Other pre- approved paid leave situations will also stay that way even if everyone else gets an excused absence. Brenda Roberts, OPM’s deputy associate director for pay and leave, said the new policy makes non-workdays a thing of the past. That’s because so many employees now have the ability to telework. OPM officials cited the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act. It made telework part of continuity of operations plans. Officials said that rendered non-work days obsolete. (OPM)
  • The Office of Special Counsel blocked the removal of a Transportation Security Administration inspector. TSA proposed firing Kimberly Barnett for inappropriate conduct. She’s an explosive detection canine handler at Charleston International Airport. OSC is investigating Barnett’s claim that she faced retaliation for whistleblowing. She alleged her supervisor violated agency safety rules and lied about how many hours she worked. Barnett said she disclosed the information to TSA management last October but was told she wasn’t being a team player. Barnett then reported her supervisor to OSC in June. She received a notice of removal just before Thanksgiving. (OSC)
  • Ill-equipped, alienated and adrift. That’s how Forest Service employees described law enforcement officers in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Non- profit group Public Employees for Environment Responsibility or PEER analyzed results for the Forest Service’s Law Enforcement and Investigations division. PEER said the results from 2014 were more negative than the year before. Less than 14 percent of respondents say they’re satisfied with the policies and practices of senior leaders in that division. And 10 percent say those leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment. (PEER)
  • Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson apologized for the failure of a major hospital construction project. The Wall Street Journal reports Gibson spoke from the site of the half-finished hospital in Aurora, Colorado. He vowed work on the million-square-foot project would resume by Christmas. Earlier this month, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals ruled the contractor was justified in walking off the job. Judges said VA had breached its contract with Keiwit-Turner. Gibson said the VA was close to completing negotiations for the company to return. It will also enlist the Army Corps of Engineers to advise on construction. (Wall Street Journal)
  • The Defense Information Systems Agency is loosening its grip on cloud computing. It released a memo giving the armed services and other Defense agency CIOs more authority to buy cloud services on their own. They won’t have to go through DISA. Federal Times reports, DOD agencies will still have to do business case justifications for each cloud acquisition. And they have to use vendors with federal security certification for low-risk data. Next month, the department plans to issue guidelines for more sensitive, unclassified data. DISA will issue provisional authority if it deems the product safe. That will let agencies hire them directly once they’ve made the business case. (Federal Times)

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