Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – July 20th

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Amy Morris discuss throughout the show each day. T...

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Amy Morris discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

  • Get out of your car! Chief Executive Barack Obama wants federal workers to cut down on business travel and commuting by car as he seeks to reduce heat-trapping emissions produced by the federal government. The White House was announcing Tuesday that the government will aim to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources like employee driving by 13 percent in 2020, compared with 2008 levels. Earlier this year Obama directed agencies to reduce pollution from direct sources, such as buildings and government fleets, by 28 percent in the next decade.
  • The General Services Administration wants its supply chain to be green, and they’ve given themselves two weeks to get it done. GSA officials say that once they develop standards for measuring the greenhouse gas emissions for products that everyone can live with, it won’t be long before everyone will make it part of doing business with the government. GSA’s recommendation calls for a phased-in incentive program, including a test drive for the first phase of the greenhouse gas reporting standards. They’d like to be well underway by the end of this month, but believe they’ll have 60 small businesses signed on by the end of fiscal year 2011.
  • Cool roofs and white roofs are coming to a DOE facility near you and maybe to your agency too! Cool roofs use special coatings to reflect more of the sun’s heat. The Department of Energy is installing more than two million square feet of these new energy-efficient roofs on their facilities throughout the U.S.. Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has sent a letter to other federal agency heads, encouraging them to take similar steps at their facilities. The Department of Energy is offering guidance to selecting cool roofs, and best practices for how to get the roof installed and which roof might be best for your agency.
  • A safer federal workplace is the goal of a new White House initiative. In a memo to agency heads, President Obama outlines new, lower targets for injury and illness on the job. He also called for less time lost to injuries and illness, and speedier fulfillment of workers compensation claims. The initiative is called POWER, or Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment.
  • A new deep look into the intelligence community is raising questions about the proper role of federal contractors. The Washington Post investigation found that 265,000 people working for the government with top secret clearance are contractors. Thats about 3-in-10. The finding is based on a two-year investigation scrutinizing the growth of intelligence activities since the September 11th attacks. According to the Post, private contractors working for the CIA have recruited spies and even protected CIA directors.
  • Two Census Bureau workers in New York face potential felony charges for falsifying population data. They were fired after being discovered by a whistle blower. Census Bureau director Rober Groves told lawmakers he found the workers’ behavior aborrent. GovExec reports, the incident occurred last month in the Brooklyn Northease Local Census Office. That area has been traditionally difficult to count. So the two supervisors ordered subordinates to fill out forms using a database, rather than conducting field interviews as required by law.

More news links

USDA employee resigns over statements about white farmer (CNN)

Paper: Gates, Panetta concerned about contractors

Intelligence director nominee faces a grilling

Director of National Intelligence Response to the Washington Post Series (2) (NewsroomAmerica.com, with more at http://www.dni.gov/)

Federal spending on homeland security: Too much, just right, or not enough? (CSMonitor.com)

FCC: broadband market not serving all Americans

US deploys aircraft carrier to South Korea

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** The US intelligence organization — is it too big to succeed? The Washington Post series is the buzz of the town and we’ll talk to the lead reporter on that series, Pulitzer Prizing winning reporter Dana Priest.

** And you’re being pressed on open government, all sorts of cultural issues are cropping up. We’ll find out what they are — and some of the solutions.

Join Chris from 3 to 7 pm on 1500 AM or on your computer.

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