Wednesday federal headlines – February 18, 2015

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.

• Ash Carter took office as the 25th Secretary of Defense yesterday. Carter laid out three commitments during his swearing-in ceremony at the White House. He said his first commitment was to address challenges to national security. That includes fighting the Isalmic State militants, strengthening NATO and dealing with cyber threats. His second commitment was to Defense Department employees’ safety and well-being. Finally, Carter said he wanted to “build a force for our future” that accounts for limited resources and budgets. The Senate confirmed Carter last week on a vote of 93 to 5. (DoD)
• The Obama administration will allow sales of armed drones to American allies. But the State Department said the sales would be on “rare occasions.” The foreign governments would have to explain how and when they’d use the drones. The countries can only use the drones for self defense, not to conduct illegal surveillance against their own populations. The U.S. would require allies buying drones to train operators. So far, the U.S. has only sold armed drones to Great Britain. But it has sold unarmed drones to many countries, including France and Italy. Those drones are used primarily for intelligence gathering. (State Department/CNN)
• The White House said 11.4 million people signed up for health care insurance using the federal exchange. The number could change. More may sign up because the enrollment period was extended a week to this Sunday. But it could also shrink if some people failed to pay their first premium. Democrats in Congress are pressing the administration to offer a grace period for people who would otherwise face a federal fine. Catchpoint Systems monitors website performance. It reports, the HealthCare.gov sign-up page was available 99 percent of the time from last Friday to Sunday. Typical load times were four seconds. (Federal News Radio)
• The Obama administration putting on hold its plans to postpone deportation hearings for some illegal immigrants. The Homeland Security Department was supposed to begin accepting applications today. But a federal judge in Texas ordered a temporary injunction against President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration. That’s after 26 states mounted a lawsuit against the plan. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled the states have standing. He said to let the executive order go forward would release a genie that couldn’t be bottled up again if the orders were found to be unconstitutional. (AP)
• Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the inaugural fellows to the Veterans Innovation Partnership. The fellowship program lets veterans take what they learned during military service and apply it to international affairs. Kerry said the fellows bring a unique way of looking at foreign policy. The fellows have been deployed to places in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Kerry says the veterans join the program because they want to continue their public service. They may be offered positions in the State Department after the fellowship concludes. ( DoD)
• Unless Congress overturns sequestration, federal agencies will have to cut their budgets by a total of $90.4 billion. That’s according to a report from the Office of Management and Budget. It’s dated Feb. 2 but only became public this week. OMB director Shaun Donovan said under current sequestration rules, the Defense Department would have to cut nearly $54 billion off 2015 spending levels. And civilian agencies would have to cut a total of nearly $36.5 billion. Donovan said the resulting funding would be insufficient for national security and core government functions. (Federal News Radio)
• The Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab raised the question of whether the federal government is installing sypware in computers throughout the world. The company said its researchers identified a new family of worms that resemble Stuxnet. That program is thought to be jointly developed by the United States and Israel. In 2011, it damaged nuclear centrifuges in Iran. Kaspersky said the latest work appears to be sent to foreign militaries, Islamic activists, energy companies and government personnel. Researcher Vitaly Kamluk saud the worm appears designed for pure espionage, not for doing damage. He called it sophisticated and expensive to develop. It’s been found on disk drives made by Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and IBM. (Federal News Radio)

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