Friday federal headlines – January 30, 2015

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.

  • Agencies have new guidelines for testing the security of their mobile apps. The National Institute of Science and Technology said agencies should specify how exactly an app’s data gets used and secured. NIST also suggested agencies determine an acceptable level of risk for each app they use. (NIST/Federal Times)
  • More problems have cropped up at the Phoenix Veterans Affars Health Care System. The VA inspector general said a small staff at the center’s urology department isn’t able to keep up with administrative tasks. Non VA providers aren’t clear of the VA’s policies for authorizing outside care. The IG said the center’s Office of Non-VA Care Coordination is hundreds of records behind. (Veterans Affairs)
  • President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget request will include $1 billion for Native American schools — $150 million more than this year’s budget. About $75 million will go to school construction and repairs. A third of the schools are rated as being in “poor condition.” Many have problems with mold, mice and leaky roofs. The budget request also seeks $33 million to expand the schools’ Internet capabilities. Less than a third of the schools have the Internet and computer capability needed for nation-wide student testing. (Federal News Radio)
  • Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicked protesters out of a committee hearing Thursday. Members of an anti-war group called Code Pink marched into the hearing. They held up signs and handcuffs and called for the arrest of one of the witnesses, none other than former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Police arrived several minutes later and hustled three protesters out of the room. McCain called after them, saying get out of here you low-life scum. The other two witnesses at the hearing were also former secretaries of state, Madeline Albright and George Schulz. (Federal News Radio)
  • The military is making data on Afghan National Security Forces classified, after six years of publicly reporting the information. The classified data includes $65 billion spent on training, equipping and sustaining Afghan forces. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction called the change “unprecedented.” SIGAR said parts of its quarterly report are now unavailable to the public. It can’t give details about how the military is spending some of the money authorized by Congress. SIGAR also can’t reveal details on DoD funded contracts related to Afghan forces. (SIGAR)
  • The Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson argued for full year of funding. He challenged Congress to act before the continuing resolution now funding the department expires Feb. 27. Congress passed only partial funding because it disagreed with the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration. In a speech in Washington, Johnson asked Congress not to treat the department like a political football. But he defended the action, saying the administration is taking steps to fix our broken immigration system. (Federal News Radio)
  • NASA is reaching far — very far — when it comes to 3-D printing. The space agency launches an in-space manufacturing initiative. The project involves 3-D printing experiments on board the International Space Station. Last month, NASA scientists on Earth emailed a wrench to the space station. It took astronauts four hours to print the wrench on the station. That was the first time an object was designed on the ground and printed in space. (DigitalGov)
  • The Defense Department launched a website to help military families find child care. The department said finding child care can be a big challenge when families move often. MilitaryChildCare.com is available to military, DoD civilian and contractor families with children between four weeks and 12-years old. The military operates or subsidizes many of the child care options. DoD said child care affects readiness and retention of the military force. The site is expected to be fully operational by next September. (DoD)
  • The Homeland Security Department is losing one of its longest serving cyber executives. Bobbie Stempfley, the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity strategy and emergency communications, will depart Feb. 13. Stempfley joined Homeland Security five years ago. She’s worked on a variety of issues, often in acting positions for someone else who’d left. Before that, she was deputy chief information officer of the Defense Information Systems Agency. A DHS official said Stempfley’s replacement has been selected, but wouldn’t say who it was. Rick Harris will be serve as acting deputy director in the meantime. (Federal News Radio)
  • An officer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory let a big cat out of the bag. The employee misclassified information that should have been kept secret, but instead was made public. The Energy Department Office of Inspector General said this happened six times. The IG found the officer was lax about letting his staff know what information must be kept secret. The IG report didn’t give any more specific details about the classified material that was released. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Veterans Affairs Department is making housing for homeless veterans a priority. The agency launched a master plan to build bridge and permanent housing at the West Los Angeles VA Campus. The city has the largest population of homeless veterans in the nation. VA Secretary Bob McDonald will appoint a special assistant to the plan. The assistant will oversee the plan’s implementation and report directly to McDonald. The master plan is scheduled to be completed in October. McDonald says veteran homelessness is down 33 percent since 2010. But he said the VA won’t be satisfied until every veteran has a home. (VA)

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