Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – March 2nd

President proposes real estate panel More college grads enter federal service BRAC back or not in 2015 USDA finds stinkbug killing wasp

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.

  • The Senate will pass a two week continuing resolution to avert a March 4 government shutdown: that promise from Majority Leader Harry Reid. A Senate vote could take place as early as today. The House passed the measure yesterday in a 335 to 91 vote. The CR bill contains $4 billion dollars in budget cuts, mostly earmarks. Reid says the two week measure will buy time while Congress works on a longer-term solution to 2011 spending.
  • President Barack Obama is proposing the creation of a panel that will recommend how the federal government can sell off properties it no longer needs. The independent board would include public and private sector members who will develop a plan for matching the government’s real estate holdings with its core missions and programs, an official told CNN on condition of anonymity.
  • GSA officials are in the hot seat over a botched public relations contract. Inspector General Brian Miller says the contract was awarded without real competition. And, that the agency let the contractor write the statement of work. GovExec reports Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill hauled administrator Martha Johnson and other officials into a hearing for a grilling. The PR contract was awarded in response to reports of unsafe health conditions at a federal office complex in Kansas City, Missouri. GSA spent $234,000 with a small, women-owned PR firm.
  • Your options for using telework centers are shrinking. GSA is defunding more than a dozen D.C. area telework centers. Half of those telework centers are closing, the other half will keep operating in the private sector. The telecenters cost about $3 million a year to operate and offered feds a place to work close to home without having to commute into their offices. GSA officials say advances in mobile technologies, like smart phones and iPads, offer options for telework beyond just telework centers.
  • The Government Accountability Office has delivered its first annual report on redundant government. It’s a doozy. In 345 detailed pages, GAO presents 81 sets of recommendations for reform and streamlining. From Agriculture to Transportation, GAO found duplication in practically every department and independent agency. In one example, GAO said if the Defense Department realigned its medical activities, savings would run to nearly a half billion dollars a year. Streamlining ethanol programs could yield nearly $6 billion in revenue.
  • More college graduates are reportedly taking jobs in the public sector. Analysis from the New York Times finds 16 percent more young college graduates worked for government in 2009, than they did the year before. They found 11 percent more worked for non-profit groups also. The Times poured through data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau. They say a smaller Labor department study also showed the level of education among young federal recruits was also on the rise. The boost, the Times suggests, may be in part due to the recession.
  • There are no plans for another round of base realignments and closures, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the House Armed Services Committee. The Norwich Bulletin reports Mabus says there are no BRAC plans for 2015. Mabus’s denial comes a week after Senator John Kerry told a technology council in Massachusetts its work would be important “when the 2015 Base Realignment and Closure process begins,” reports TheDay in New London. Mabus and other military leaders testified that BRAC requires Congressional authorization and the process is not even in its earliest stages.
  • When a homeowner gets fed up with stinkbugs, they can call an exterminator. What do states and even entire regions do when faced with the same messy problem? The Baltimore Sun reports that the Agriculture Department may have already come up with an answer. USDA tests show that tiny, parasitic Asian wasps will hijack stink bug eggs for their own young, destroying up to 80-percent of them. While stink bugs are not a threat to people, they are a threat to crops. Asian wasps, on the other hand, are very tiny and do not attack insects that are considered beneficial.

More news links

EPA Extends Emissions Reporting Deadline (WallStreetJournal)

Novavax shares jump on contract news (Washington Business Journal)

Android Market malware scare: Google nukes 21 Trojan apps (ComputerWorld)

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