Thursday federal headlines – May 28, 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.

  • The Obama administration’s plan to bar contractors with labor violations is drawing fire from contractor trade groups. The Federal Acquisition Council issued rules carrying out an executive order from last July. They require companies to disclose the past three years of labor violation charges in order to qualify for federal contracts. Rules under 14 laws would apply. The Associated Builders and Contractors called the proposal a blacklist. Geoff Burr, its vice president for government affairs, said it creates a murky acquisition system. The Professional Services Council said the rule is unexecutable and penalizes contractors for unproved allegations. (Federal News Radio)
  • IRS investigators believe their latest case of identity theft originated in Russia. Sources told the Associated Press they reached that conclusion after analyzing computer data about who accessed information on more than 100,000 taxpayers. The IRS won’t confirm the allegation publicly. The thieves obtained personal information, including Social Security numbers, elsewhere and used it to try and download tax returns. The apparent goal was to obtain fraudulent refunds. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency’s filters stopped most of the attempted thefts. The IRS has had repeated tangles with ID thieves originating overseas. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Finance Committee, asked the IRS for a private briefing. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Homeland Security and Agriculture departments are building a new laboratory in Kansas. It will be a National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, and will replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. Researchers will study food safety, public health and vaccines to control disease outbreaks. They’ll look specifically at diseases transmitted from animals to humans. DHS said the lab is scheduled to be completed and operational in 2022. It’s estimated to cost $1.25 billion and will be 570,000 square feet. (DHS)
  • Auditors want the Defense Department to look at lessons learned when planning for future budgets. The findings come in a new report from the Government Accountability Office. When sequestration hit in 2013, the Pentagon reshuffled its spending to keep funding for important programs and reduce it on lower priorities. Operations and maintenance took the biggest cut, followed by procurement. But GAO found DoD doesn’t properly document best practices from past experiences, so it can’t re-allocate spending according to lessons learned. Auditors said the department is missing an opportunity to gain knowledge that would help in budget decision-making. (GAO)
  • The Justice Department will use cloud storage vendor Box for file sharing and document collaboration. Bloomberg reports the company already has 40 federal customers. Still, the Justice deal is a big win for the start-up company. It went public in January, emphasizing cloud services for customers with high security requirements. The company said it’s seeking certification under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP. (Bloomberg)
  • A federal judge ordered the State Department to release batches of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email every 30 days. State officials had petitioned the court to release them every 60 days. But U.S. District Judge Robert Contreras wants a more aggressive schedule. All of the emails State decides to release must be made public by Jan 15. At issue are emails from when Clinton was Secretary of State. She kept her official correspondence on a private, family server she had erased after leaving office. The department was left with 55,000 pages of printouts. A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeks release of all the emails. (Federal News Radio)
  • Commercial rocket outfit SpaceX won certification from the Air Force to handle national security missions. Secretary Deborah Lee James said the move would make the launch business more competitive. For the past decade, it’s been dominated by a Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture. The Government Accountability Office estimated the market for military satellite launches runs to about $70 billion over the next 15 years. Bloomberg reports the competition could heat up as soon as next month. That’s when the Air Force is expected to issue a request for proposals to launch GPS satellites. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has said the company can use its Falcon 9 rockets for less than $100 million per mission. (Bloomberg)
  • Just a reminder, feds — marijuana use is still illegal under federal law. That means employees who use, buy, sell or possess the substance could put their jobs at risk, even if their state decriminalizes it. In a memo, the Office of Personnel Management reminded workers that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, which means employees are prohibited from using it. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said drug involvement raises questions about an individual’s reliability, judgment and trustworthiness. But she said conduct needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. (Federal News Radio

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