Monday federal headlines – May 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.

• The General Services Administration needs to revamp its leasing policies. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduces the Public Buildings Reform and Savings Act. The bill creates a streamlined leasing pilot program. It also sets clear timelines for finishing federal construction projects. And it gives the Federal Protective Service more oversight. (The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee)
• The House passes its version of the 20-16 National Defense Authorization Act. It makes no mention of a pay raise for troops next fiscal year, meaning President Obama can likely move forward with the 1.3 percent pay raise he proposed. It also automatically enrolls new troops into the Thrift Savings Plan. Military members would contribute 3 percent of their pay, with government matching at 1 percent. (Gov Exec)
• Marine Corps chief information officer Brigadier General Kevin Nally is retiring in July. He’s been in the Marines for 34 years and spent five of those years as CIO. No word yet on his plans for retirement. (Federal News Radio)
• The Veterans Affairs Department launches five challenges. The goal of the Innovation Creation Series is to improve quality of life for veterans. VA said many of the challenges come directly from veterans’ requests. The department wants ideas from the public for a system that reminds veterans to take medication and devices to help veterans with prosthetics. Also, a device that would dampen tremors when someone is doing fine motor tasks. The challenge is open through the end of June. (VA)
• Federal agencies mostly do what they’re supposed to when it comes to electronic records management. But the Government Accountability Office said they’ve still got work to do. A White House and Archives directive in 2012 set seven deadlines for agencies to reform records management. GAO found most, but not all of the 24 agencies it checked had met them. Five outliers received a list of recommendations from the GAO, including the completion of training and scheduling records to be sent to the Archives. GAO recommended the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget step up their oversight of agency records management. (GAO)
• Afghanistan has a civil aviation system that’s functioning, but only barely, after the United States spent more than a half a billion dollars to rebuild it. The Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction recommended funding a new service contract to prop it up, mainly to train Afghans in the art of air traffic control. The SIGAR said expenditures by the Transportation and Defense Departments have been primarily to aid military operations. But they’ve also helped Afghanistan’s civil airspace. Barriers to effective training involve international travel, security and housing. (SIGAR)
• A congressman wants to know if two agencies used private email. Lamar Smith chairs the House Science, Space and Technology committee. He sent letters to the Environment Protection Agency, the Energy Department and former EPA employee Michael Goo. The committee finds emails showing Goo used private email and text messages to communicate with third party groups. In one email sent from Goo’s private account, he writes “attached is a memo I didn’t want to send in public.” Smith said Goo and the agencies are skirting transparency requirements. The committee subpoenaed the EPA earlier this year for text messages deleted from Administrator Gina McCarthy’s work phone. (House Science Committee)
• The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know whether the Postal Service is playing by the rules when it comes to accounting for its package delivery business. Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said he’s worried USPS might be subsidizing the competitive package business with revenue from its so- called market dominant products. That would be a violation of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. Direct Marketing News reports shippers UPS and FedEx have complained recently of unfair competition from the Postal Service. In a letter to Postmaster General Megan Brennan, Chaffetz says USPS must maintain a bright-line separation between the competitive and non-competitive products. ( DM News)
• NASA releases its second annual Software Catalog with code for more than 1,000 programs. Some examples: a vehicle sketch pad to design aircraft and an activity planner for Mars rovers. NASA’s the only agency so far to put out that information for the public. The catalog stems from a presidential memo in 2011, to commercialize federal research and support businesses. The catalog also goes along with the Obama administration’s Lab to Market priority. Federal labs are encouraged to make their research findings more available to industry. The White House says NASA’s first catalog, released last May, has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. (White House )
• The Defense Department identified the six Marines who were killed in a helicopter crash in Nepal. The helicopter was on an aid mission to help victims of the earthquake when it went down in the mountains last week. The fallen Marines include two captains and two sergeants based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. A combat photographer and a videographer also died in the crash. And two Nepalese soldiers on board the helicopter were killed. (DoD)
• The Navy is considering opening up its nuclear ship scrapping operations to competition. Until now, all nuclear-powered Navy ships were dismantled and scrapped at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash. Defense News reports the Navy is unhappy with the costs claimed by Puget Sound. And it worries that the backlog of both active and decommissioned ships and submarines is too much for the facility to handle. Right now, Puget Sound is the only shipyard certified to take apart and dispose of nuclear powered vessels. Its biggest job of all is due in 2017, when the aircraft carrier Enterprise reaches the end of its life. The Naval Sea Systems Command first floated the idea of competing Puget Sound a year ago. It says the idea is still active. (Defense News)

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