Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – January 12th

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.

• House members of both parties will hold a joint meeting today to discuss security measures, especially when members are away from Capitol Hill. The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Connecticut Representative John Larson says the main goal is to ensure that lawmakers are coordinating their efforts with local law enforcement. The question of permanent security changes falls to the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the 1,800 member U.S. Capitol Police Force.
• Seven years after the chief of the Park Police was fired, an appeals panel has ordered that she be reinstated. The Merit Systems Protection Board says that Teresa Chambers was wrongly dismissed for publicly voicing concerns about budget cuts and lack of resources. The Board ruled that Chambers must be allowed to resume her old position in the next 20 days. The Board also says that Chambers is entitled to retroactive pay dating back to July 2004, along with reimbursement for legal fees. The Department of the Interior can appeal. No word on what the agency might do.
• Time is winding down for the current Joint Forces Command. GovExec reports, the Defense Department wants to finalize plans for the closing and restructuring of JFCOM, before the end of February. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said about 50 percent of the J-FCOM capabilities will be kept and assigned to other organizations. The other 50 percent, and about 1,900 jobs, will be cut. The plan is expected to save the military more than $400 million per year.
• Federal customers gave their feedback, now the General Services Administration is launching its new and improved shopping system. NextGov.com reports, the revamped GSA Advantage site streamlines the federal purchasing process. Rather than making customers search through the same products offered multiple times, they can now see the product once, along with all the vendor offers. The new site also offers bigger photos of products, and lets agencies track orders online. The site offers more than 28 million products for federal employees and their agencies.
• The Treasury Department is moving four of its websites into the Amazon Web Services cloud, and a brand new site is also in the works. Treasury awarding the contract to Smartronix to support the launch of the newly revamped Treasury.gov website. The Washington Post reports, four of Treasury’s other sites, including MyMoney.gov, are migrating to the cloud.
• Lockheed Martin has won an information technology contract from the Social Security Administration. If all options are exercised, the contract is valued at $200 million dollars. The Washington Business Journal reports Lockheed will help SSA improve the quality and speed of processing disability claims. The Disability Case Processing System contract is for one year with five 1-year options.
• SAIC is expanding its presence in Maryland, thanks to BRAC. The Washington Business Journal is reporting that the military contractor is signing a lease for 31,000 square feet at the Government and Technology Enterprise office park at Aberdeen Proving Ground. This would be the first office inside the facility for SAIC. The move is in anticipation of shifts to come because of the Base Realignment and Closure commission decision. Once BRAC is complete, it is estimated that there will be 10,000 personnel transfered to Aberdeen, and 40,000 more jobs created.

More news links

Social Security judges facing increasing threats of violence (WashingtonPost)

FBI spy catcher to run New York counterintelligence (WashingtonPost)

Santa-tracking program sees record participation

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** OMB has laid out it’s 25-point plan to improve government IT. The CIO for the Army Contracting Command has actually rolling out some of the tenants of the OMB plan and we’ll tap some of their lessons learned.

** And Apple has said it is looking at the enterprise market and there are even reports that they are looking to really move into the government market. How do they do that? We’ll find out…

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