Wednesday federal headlines – March 11, 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 government’s improper payment rate is up 14 percent in fiscal 2014. It’s first increase in six years. Office of Management and Budget Controller Dave Mader said he was working with other agencies to find out why the improper payment rate is going up. OMB updated its internal controls and approach to rating each program back in October. (Federal News Radio)
• Forty-four percent of the federal workforce is thriving financially. A new Gallup poll found that was 10 points higher than the rest of the U.S. workforce. Gallup said 39 percent of federal employees have moderate financial stability, with 17 percent at low or inconsistent financial stability. (Gallup)
• Two federal agencies are losing their chief information officers. Sonny Hashmi is leaving the General Services Administration for the private sector. It’s still unclear who will be GSA’s acting CIO when Hashmi leaves next month. Cheryl Cook is retiring from the Agriculture Department. Joyce Hunter is now the acting CIO. (Federal News Radio)
• A bipartisan bill would build on programs to reduce veteran homelessness. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced the measure. The bill would invest in existing programs at the Veterans Affairs Department that have proved to be effective. Under the measure, the VA would be allowed to house children of homeless vets so that families can stay together. The senators said the bill would smooth the shift from transitional to permanent housing. It would also give more money to support low-income veteran families. The National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans support the bill. (Sen. Joe Manchin)
• The American Civil Liberties Union, Wikipedia and eight other groups are suing the National Security Agency. The lawsuit challenges a mass surveillance program that gathers personal information from the so-called “backbone” of the Internet. The groups filed the suit in federal court in Maryland. They accused NSA of violating freedom of speech under the First Amendment and protection against unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Many other lawsuits have been filed since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information on government surveillance. Many of those challenged bulk collection of phone data. (Federal News Radio /NextGov)
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives backs off a plan to block a popular type of ammunition. The armor-piercing bullets are often used by hunters, but ATF said they’re harmful to law enforcement officers. The proposal drew sharp criticism from some lawmakers and guns rights groups. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) even introduced a bill to abolish the Bureau. ATF said it’s received more than 80,000 comments on its proposal — and most were critical. The agency said it would not issue a final framework based on the proposal. (New York Times)
• The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is winding down, but U.S. presence isn’t gone just yet. An Army brigade based in Fort Hood will replace some of the forces currently stationed in Liberia. The brigade will support the U.S. Agency for International Development. Col. Sven Erichsen is commander of the 48th Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Brigade. He said the civilian- led response in Liberia will actually grow in the next few weeks. Liberia declared its last Ebola case cured on March 5. If no new cases are reported by April 16, the country can be declared Ebola-free. (Army)
• Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against a National Weather Service employee accused of illegally accessing a restricted federal computer database. They filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Dayton, Ohio, to dismiss charges against Sherry Chen. The move came just days before her trial was to start. Chen’s attorney, Peter Ziedenberg, said he met with prosecutors to explain why he thought the case should be dismissed, and they agreed. Chen was charged with illegally accessing the restricted area of the database. She was accused of downloading sensitive files from the National Inventory of Dams. (Federal News Radio)
• Controversial technology used by the U.S. Marshals Service to do cell phone surveillance was developed by the CIA. The Wall Street Journal reports the engineering was done as part of a secret, high-tech alliance between the CIA and the Justice Department. The result was a device mounted on small airplanes the Marshals flew from five cities. The devices, nicknamed dirtboxes, mimic cell towers so they can collect unique identifiers of thousands of cell phones at a time. It’s the same technology the CIA uses overseas to track terrorists. ( Wall Street Journal)
• The General Services Administration is suspending for three months online meetings it’s been having with vendors. It says it wants to spend the time meeting in person with companies and with government customers. The virtual meetings are organized by the Coalition for Government Procurement. They’re aimed at helping GSA develop a procurement strategy for the replacement version of its popular Alliant acquisition vehicles. GSA officials are planning to release draft requests-for-proposals for the unrestricted and small business Alliant-2 G-WACS at the end of this month. They’ll have the in-person, so- called mythbusters meetings in April and May. Officials said the virtual meetings would resume in June. (GSA)
• What the Navy is calling complex technology problems are delaying delivery of two new ships. Defense News reports the destroyer Zumwalt, a new class of ship, was supposed to be delivered this summer. Now it will be November. A second copy, the Michael Monsoor, was also pushed back to late 2016. General Dynamics is building the new DDG ships at its Bath Iron Works in Maine. The Zumwalt is 94 percent finished. But a Navy spokeswoman said completing installation, integration and testing of the highly unique, leading edge technology of the new ships is causing the holdup. A third ship, the Lyndon B. Johnson, is on schedule for a December 2018 delivery. (Defense News)

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