Friday federal headlines – April 24, 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.

  • About 640,000 fewere people held security clearances at the end of fiscal 2014 The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it was a 12 percent drop in the number of federal employees and contractors who had clearances. Most people who lost their clearance didn’t need one for their jobs. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Veterans Affairs Department tweaked requirements for the Veterans Choice Program. The VA said it would determine eligibility based on the driving distance between the veteran’s home and the closest VA hospital. (Veterans Affairs)
  • Why do senior executives leave government? Politics and management are two of the biggest factors. The Office of Personnel Management surveyed members of the Senior Executive Service who were leaving their jobs. Among those leaving federal service, half expected they would work again and most were looking for a pay raise — 60 percent of executives surveyed said they were leaving because of the political environment. More than half said they wereunhappy with senior leadership. And just under half said the pay wasn’t enough. But most executives still said their agency was a good place to work, and they would recommend others to work at their agency. (OPM)
  • Former Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby will retire from the military. He’ll become the spokesman for the State Department. Kirby replaces Jen Psaki, who left the department last month to become the White House communications director. Secretary of State John Kerry said Kirby has broad knowledge of international issues and he’s widely seen as non-political. Kirby will begin formal briefings after his military retirement. (Federal News Radio)
  • Lawmakers introduced a bill to stop improper payments to the deceased. The measure gives agencies complete access to the Social Security Administration’s database on deceased individuals. Right now, most agencies rely on a shortened and less timely version of the list. The bill also requires SSA to make its death data more accurate. A recent inspector general report found the agency’s records showed millions of people over the age of 112 were alive, when they were actually dead. Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) introduced the bill. Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) introduced a companion bill in the House. (Senate)
  • A House panel claimed the IRS makes poor spending choices and mismanages its resources. The Ways and Means Committee said the agency deliberately cut spending on taxpayer services, but not on employee bonuses. A report from the committee found the IRS reduced its funding for taxpayer services by 6 percent. But it still gave $60 million in bonuses to its employees. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency has 13,000 fewer employees and $1.2 billion less than five years ago. He said that was why only half of callers to the agency get through to a live operator. (Federal News Radio)
  • It’s official — Loretta Lynch won confirmation as attorney general. The Senate voted in her favor, 56 to 43. Her confirmation hearing was held up for more than five months, most recently as the Senate debated a sex trafficking bill. Lynch becomes the first black female to hold the head position at the Justice Department. She’ll replace current Attorney General Eric Holder, who’s been at the agency six years. (Federal News Radio)
  • Women make up a quarter of the veterans that federal agencies have hired for civilian jobs. Leaders of the Labor and Veterans Affairs departments celebrated the news as a sign that recent Obama Administration efforts are working, considering that women are just 9 percent of all vets. But, in a blog post that they penned with Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta, they said that women are still under-represented when it comes to skilled trades and law enforcement — two areas where veterans have considerate expertise. They said a council focused on veterans employment would design strategies to increase outreach and recruitment of women vets. (Council on Veterans Employment)
  • Retired Gen. David Petraeus was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for giving classified information to his mistress. Petraeus had negotiated the terms in a plea deal with prosecutors, although the judge raised the fine to reflect the seriousness of the offense. Still, some are saying that Petraeus received preferential treatment compared to others convicted of leaking state secrets. Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents federal employees in similar situations, said the government displayed an unfair double-standard by letting Petraeus skirt jail time to avoid a political controversy. Petraeus told the court he was sorry for the pain his actions had caused. (Federal News Radio)
  • You may not have to worry about sequestration next year, if House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) gets his way. He said he’d like to repeal the across-the- board cuts, as long as Congress shaves the government’s $4 trillion budget elsewhere. He suggested Congress could work out a deal like the 2013 agreement that lifted sequestration caps for last year and this year. Likely to take the hit: mandatory programs like Social Security. The move is supported by Democrats and some Republicans. The GOP cares more about defense than civilian funding, however. (Federal News Radio)

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