Monday federal headlines – December 22, 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...

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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.

  • The Veterans Affairs Department tries to cater to a growing number of female veterans. The U.S. has about 2.2 million female veterans. The Washington Post reports the VA has put up posters around its hospitals, with phrases like “Not every GI is a Joe.” The agency is hiring more female veteran program managers. It’s also ramping up maternity programs for female veterans. Many female veterans say they feel unwelcome at VA hospitals. Vets who suffer from sexual abuse don’t feel they have enough access to care. And some clinics just recently created bathrooms for female patients. (Washington Post)
  • It’s official. Federal employees under the General Schedule will receive a 1 percent pay increase in 2015. President Obama signed an executive order on raises Friday, just before leaving on his Hawiian vacation. Raises are effective Jan. 1. Most commissioned and enlisted service members will receive similar raises. The minimum Senior Executive Salary will also rise 1 percent, to $122,000. Members of Congress and senior political leaders don’t get raises. Their salaries were frozen as part of the fiscal 2015 budget deal. The President’s executive order keeps locality pay percentages at 2014 levels. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Army is a step closer to deciding the final fate of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former Afghan insurgent prisoner. The Wall Street Journal reports Army officials investigating his 2009 disappearance will forward their findings to the Northern Army commander Monday. Lt. Gen. Perry Wiggins will decide Bergdahl’s punishment, if any. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was briefed on results of the investigation. They won’t be made public today. A Pentagon spokesman says they will be eventually. Bergdhal left his unit and was in captivity for five years. He was returned to U.S. custody in a prisoner exchange last May. Army officials have said he acted improperly. (Wall Street Journal)
  • Up to 1,300 more troops will deploy to Iraq in late January. Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby says the troops will train, advise and assist Iraqi security forces. The goal is to train 12 Iraqi brigades to fight Islamic State militants. The U.S. troops will be stationed in the Anbar area of Iraq, north of Baghdad. Kirby says they’ll interact directly with Iraqi troops, but in a training environment, not in the field. About 1,000 of the service members will come from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. In November, President Obama authorized 1,500 more troops for missions in Iraq. (DoD)
  • You can now follow the Homeland Security Department on Instagram. DHS joins some of its component agencies on the social media site, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. DHS says it will post photos of Secretary Jeh Johnson’s travels and frontline efforts by DHS employees. The Instagram account complements DHS’ Flickr page, which it launched in November. The agency also has accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, along with its own blog. So far, DHS has 3,000 followers on Instagram. (DHS)
  • President Barack Obama will nominate Sally Quillian Yates to the number two position in the Justice Department. Yates is the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta. She’s been the U.S. Attorney for Northern Georgia since 2010. She was a prosecutor before that. Among her cases is the prosecution of Eric Rudolph. He’s serving four lifetime sentences for the Atlanta Summer Olympics bombing in 1996. Yates joins Loretta Lynch, Obama’s nominee for attorney general, as the second to be nominated directly from a top local Justice job to headquarters. (Associated Press)
  • The National Park Service awards a temporary contract to keep services open at the Grand Canyon. The one-year contract goes to Xanterra Parks and Resorts. The contract is worth $66 million in gross revenue per year. The Park Service has used services from Xanterra for decades, but its current contract expires at the end of the year. The company operates some hotels and mule rides at the south rim of the Canyon. The temporary contract lets the Park Service solicit bids for a 15- year contract. (Associated Press)
  • The General Services Administration looks for developers for the new FBI Headquarters. The agency’s Request for Proposals asks for a new facility of up to 2.1 million square feet. In exchange, GSA will trade the current FBI headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The two agencies haven’t nailed down a location for the headquarters yet, but they’re considering three options. Two are in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and the third is in Springfield, Virginia. The FBI headquarters project is part of GSA’s efforts to consolidate underused federal properties. (GSA)
  • New rules for how agencies manage grants go into effect Friday. The Council on Financial Assistance Reform, or COFAR, releases the final rule first proposed a year ago. It takes guidance from eight separate circulars and streamlines them into one. Office of Management and Budget Controller Dave Mader said the move cuts the volume of financial management regulations by 75 percent. He said it also reduces the chances for waste, fraud and abuse in the $600 billion in grants the federal government spends annually. Among the policy reforms: State, local or tribal governments can partner with non-profits of local projects. The new guidance strengthens the rules for internal controls on the part of grant recipients. (Federal News Radio)
  • Cindy Mann, the top Medicaid official, will leave the administration next month. The move was announced to employees in an e-mail from Marilyn Tannener, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mann has been deputy CMS administrator for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Services since 2009. Modern Healthcare reports her departure drew surprise and disappointment from some in the Medicaid industry. Mann gets praise for working with states agreeing to expand Medicaid. Enrollments have grown by nearly 10 million in the last two years. Vikki Wachino, the deputy director of the children’s program, will act in Mann’s place until a permanent replacement is found. (Modern Healthcare)

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