Tuesday federal headlines – June 2, 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.

• Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reassigned Melvin Carraway, the acting chief of the Transportation Security Administration. He ordered a revision in airport operating procedures, and fresh training for TSA officers and supervisors. The moves comes after inspector general officials briefed Johnson on how easily investigators got prohibited items through airport checkpoints. ABC News first reported the breaches. The IG audit showed agents could get dangerous items by screeners in 67 of 70 tries. Items included mock guns and explosives. Acting Deputy Director Mark Hatfield will run TSA until the President names a permanent administrator. (Federal News Radio/DHS OIG)
• The Office of Personnel Management is trying to get a handle on paid administrative leave. Director Katherine Archuleta said she’s responding to a Government Accountability report last year that said agencies don’t follow a uniform system for reporting paid leave. She notified chief human capital officers that she wants a working group of them to change payroll data standards. OPM and some agencies have come under fire from Congress for being too liberal with paid leave. The GAO report showed a few people being kept in paid positions without working for a year or longer. (CHCOC)
• One percent of health care providers received more than 17 percent of the payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2013. That’s according to the latest annual release of CMS payment data. The Medicare program turns 50 next month. It’s grown into a $600 billion health care program and covers 55 million people. The latest data shows that joint replacement is the medical procedure most commonly covered by Medicare. It accounted for 450,000 in-patient admissions and $6.6 billion in payouts. (Federal News Radio)
• Auditors said the Veterans Affairs Department needs to improve oversight of non-VA health care. The Government Accountability Office found VA doesn’t consistently collect wait times on outside care. And it doesn’t analyze costs for non-VA medical appointments. That means VA doesn’t know if providers are billing the agency fairly and if veterans are getting timely and appropriate care. GAO also found problems in how VA monitors claims processing. Auditors recommend VA put methods in place to collect data on wait times and cost effectiveness of outside care. And the agency should increase oversight of the claims process. ( GAO)
• A group of Republican House leaders urged President Barack Obama to appoint a permanent inspector general at the Interior Department. They point out the last one resigned in 2009. The letter is similar to one a Senate panel sent in April. Senators asked the President to appoint IGs to 10 agencies. Both letters stress the importance of independent oversight of federal programs. The latest letter is signed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Bob Bishop (R- Utah), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). (Federal News Radio)
• Combating fraud is one of the biggest challenges the Environmental Protection Agency is facing this year. In a report, the EPA’s inspector general said the agency needs more oversight to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. Managers need to take prompt action against employees who engage in misconduct. The IG pointed to “recent events and activities” related to attendance and computer usage. IG reports earlier this year found an EPA employee who watched up to six hours of porn a day on his work computer and another worker who used his EPA email account to access online child pornography. (EPA)
• The Defense Department is planning to review its laboratory procedures related to anthrax. The move comes after DoD mistakenly shipped anthrax to dozens of laboratories in the U.S and an American military base in South Korea. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work ordered the review. Analysts will focus on finding out why anthrax wasn’t completely inactivate. And in general, they’ll review DoD lab procedures, safety protocols and how well employees are following those rules. The Pentagon will start its review after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one is complete. (Army)
• The Pentagon will work with Japan’s Ministry of Defense to fight cyber threats. The Hill reports, the two nations will coordinate on cybersecurity and help each other respond to cyber attacks. They’ll share data on cyber threats, in an effort to thwart them. The two militaries will hold more joint cyber training and exercises. (The Hill )
• Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno will retire in August with one big piece of unfinished business. Unresolved will be the final size of the Army. He said that’s because no clear signal has emerged from Congress. Odierno said the uncertainty is causing angst among the troops. Regardless of which plan prevails, the active-duty Army will end up well below 500,000 — possibly as small as 420,000. Meanwhile, Odierno said sequestration cuts must stop, because of uncertainty around the world. He pointed out, even with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mostly over, the Army still has 143,000 troops deployed outside of the United States. (DoD)

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