Friday federal headlines – March 6, 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.

• The Defense Department is hiring 3,000 new cyber professionals. The Office of Personnel Managament gave all of DoD, including the U.S. Cyber Command, the go-ahead to make new hires by the end of 2015. Positions are at General Schedule levels 9 through 15. Federal Register)
• A military appeals court officially recognizes Chelsea Manning as a woman. The former Army private changed her legal name from Bradley to Chelsea last April. The court said all future filings, orders and decisions related to Manning must use female pronouns. Or they can use gender-neutral phrases for example, “Pfc. Manning.” Manning is serving 35 years in prison for leaking military secrets to the website WikiLeaks. (Federal News Radio)
• The Defense Department has added a social media expert to the team. Stephanie Dreyer becomes the department’s first ever director for digital media and strategy. NextGov reports she will focus specifically on DoD’s social media strategy. Dreyer will also work on increasing communication between Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the public. DoD already has accounts on many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr and more. The department’s Facebook page has more than 800,000 likes and its Twitter account has 700,000 followers. (NextGov)

  The Office of Personnel Management’s retirement backlog has reached its highest number in 18 months. By the end of February, the agency had an inventory of 24,000 claims. That’s 1,500 more claims than the month before. OPM actually received 500 fewer claims in February than it projected. But it also processed 2,000 fewer than planned. OPM typically receives the largest number of retirement claims in January and February. (Federal News Radio)

• A new bill would base federal employees’ pensions on the highest five years of salary, instead of three. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) introduced the bill. If it passes, the legislation would go into effect in January 2017. The measure would affect civilian federal employees, members of Congress and their staff, but not military pensions. The Congressional Budget Office said the bill would save more than $3 billion in 10 years. But the American Federation of Government Employees said it would rob feds of their retirement. (Federal Times)
• Could government shutdowns be a thing of a past? Rep. Alan Grayson (D- Fla.) introduced the Shut Down the Shutdowns Act. The bill would automatically extend agencies’ budget for another fiscal year if Congress fails to pass a funding bill before the deadline. The bill would serve as a stopgap measure until Congress approves new funding legislation. Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced a similar bill in 2013. But Congress didn’t pass the legislation. (Washington Post)
• The Chief Information Officers Council is reaching down into the bureaucracy, looking for problem solvers. It wants people at the GS-9 through GS-13 levels to devote time to solving longstanding issues related to IT acquisition and deployment. The initiative is called the IT Solutions Challenge. In a White House blog post, the federal CIO Tony Scott said he’s hoping to bring fresh perspectives to old problems. Transportation Department CIO Richard McKinney said web developers, business experts and others will devote 20 percent of their time to the Challenge over a period of six months. (Federal News Radio)
• A bill designed to give inspectors general more independence crossed a milestone Wednesday, when it sailed through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Inspector General Empowerment Act would require greater communication between IGs and agency management, Congress and the public. The bill would give IGs the authority to subpoena federal contractors and former federal employees. The committee also approved eight bipartisan bills, several of which run the gamut of federal management and workforce issues, from sick leave to car repairs. (Federal News Radio)
• A big cybersecurity bill has stalled in the Senate because of objections from the White House and privacy groups. The Wall Street Journal reports sponsors had hoped to debate and vote on the measure in committee this week. Now that may not happen until April. The sponsors are Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and the ranking member, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D- Calif.). The bill is aimed at boosting cyber threat information sharing among companies and with the federal government. A group called New America’s Open Technology Institute calls the bill a backdoor for surveillance. Many large companies support it because it includes liability protection. (Wall Street Journal)
• U.S. ground troops might be needed in Syria to fight alongside the moderate rebels they are training. That’s according to no less than Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Military Times reports Dempsey said he’d make that recommendation in testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. Most the Army’s efforts so far against the Islamic State have centered on Iraq. But now the U.S. is about to train thousands of Syrian rebels in the hopes of kicking ISIS out of that country. Dempsey said he can imagine a scenario in which a small team of U.S. special forces troops might be needed in ground combat. Or it might call in close air support. (Military Times )

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