Monday federal headlines – April 6, 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.

  • Defense Secretary Ash Carter is heading to Asia this week to underscore the Obama administration’s rebalance-to-Asia strategy. That’s been overshadowed in the last couple of years by continuous turmoil in the Middle East. Carter will preview his trip today at the Arizona State University’s McCain Institute for International Leadership. Tomorrow, he’ll be in Tokyo. Japan is reworking the military strategy it established at the end of World War II. Carter also visits South Korea this week. Later this spring, he’ll head to India and Singapore. A China trip could occur later in the year. (Federal News Radio )
  • Pentagon surveys found special operations forces doubt women can meet the physical and mental demands of their jobs. That concern comes from men and some women. Some troops said they were worried that the Pentagon would lower its standards to integrate women into the ranks. The military branches must open all combat jobs to women by January 2016. ( Federal News Radio)
  • The Army said it will update its tattoo policy in the coming weeks. Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said the revised policy would be more in line with current social norms. Soldiers won’t have a limit to the size and number of tattoos on their arms and legs. But Odierno said the tattoos can’t be extremist, indecent, sexist or racist. The Army will still prohibit tattoos on the head, neck, face, wrist and hands. (U.S. Army)
  • Lots of things are banned in prison, but tweeting isn’t one of them. Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is now on Twitter. Formerly known as Bradley Manning, she is in prison for giving military secrets to Wikileaks. Manning uses the Twitter handle @XYChelsea. Her first tweet got nearly 2,000 retweets and more than 1,000 favorites. She has almost 43,000 followers. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • NASA has wrapped up its SEWP V contract awards. It handed contracts to 118 small, disadvantaged companies in time for a May 1 launch of the program. The latest awards cover Group B, where 25 service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses received awards, and Group C for all other small businesses. Of that group, 14 contracts went to HUB-zone companies. Two weeks ago, the SEWP program office made its large business awards. (Federal News Radio)
  • Some transparency advocates aren’t happy with recent changes to USASpending.gov, which contains information on federal contracts, grants and financial assistance. The Treasury Department said the revamped site lets users more easily navigate to spending data and it uses plain language instead of government jargon. GovExec reports, critics said the new site lacks some critical functionality, especially for advanced searches. Users can’t search government purchases by product, service code or parent company, nor can they do a keyword search. But many users say the new version of the website is more attractive. ( GovExec )
  • A new program will train service members and veterans to enter the solar workforce. The departments of Energy and Defense launched the Solar Ready Vets program at 10 military bases. Service members will learn how to install solar panels, connect electricity to the grid and comply with local building codes. The program builds on Energy’s SunShot Initiative, which partners with community colleges to train students for solar careers. The White House said the solar industry added jobs at 10 times the rate of the rest of the economy. Energy wants to train 75,000 people to enter the solar workforce by 2020. (White House)
  • The General Services Administration is looking for a contractor to consolidate several solar-power purchases in California and Nevada. It plans to award a power purchase agreement this summer that would require that the systems be operational, with five megawatts of solar power capacity, by the end of 2016. The Federal Aggregated Solar Procurement Pilot is designed to lower costs by combining nine small and midsized photovoltaic projects. GSA said the projects are operated by multiple federal agencies. It wants a single contractor to operate the system and sell the power back to the government. (General Services Administration)
  • Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson apologized to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) after Secret Service staff circulated records showing Chaffetz was rejected when he applied for a job there. The Hill reports, Johnson has called for an internal investigation. Committee staff members had referred the matter to the Homeland Security inspector general. Chaffetz has been leading investigations into the Secret Services following a series of embarrassing missteps by agency personnel. He says he applied for a job at the agency more than a decade ago. (The Hill )

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