Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – March 23rd

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 General Services Administration says it’s boosting the money some feds get for travel. They’re raising per diem rates for parts of California, Virginia and New York. Rates are also rising for counties in Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas. GSA says the per diem it announced late last year wasn’t high enough for parts of the country. The new rates start on April first.
• You’re not the only one spending more at the gas pump. The federal government’s gas bill increased by over $200 million last year! Agencies consumed 322 million gallons of gas in 2010, a seven percent increase, despite the Obama administration’s mandate to agencies to reduce emissions and fuel dependency. The government’s total gas bill was just under $940 million for non-military operations. Federal Times reports, the GSA added 11,000 vehicles to the government’s fleet in 2010, but less than two percent are hybrid or electric vehicles.
• Few federal employees are denied step increases due to poor performance. That’s according to data obtained by the Federal Times from the Office of Personnel Management. Only 737 out of more than 1.2 million GS employees were denied a regularly scheduled step increase because of poor performance in 2009. That equals a 0.6 percent denial rate, far lower that estimates of poor performers. But that denial rate is the highest in recent years. The figures are expected to fuel critics of the current federal pay system who argue that federal pay and promotions have little link to job performance.
• Agencies can expect an email from the Office of Management and Budget on its government reorganization plans. Phase one of OMB’s reorg is being modeled after the SAVE awards, meaning they are reaching out to all federal employees for ideas to improve export and trade agencies and their overlapping missions. Ideas can be submitted using a new website until mid-to-late June.
• A package containing explosive components was left unattended and unchecked for three weeks at a federal building. The package was brought into the Detroit building by private security officers, but went unscreened. After it was finally checked, the building’s security personnel notified federal authorities and Detroit police. The Washington Post reports the FBI is now investigating the package and security lapse, which is being blamed on private security guards and inspectors with the Federal Protective Service. The 26-story building houses regional offices for the FBI, IRS, Social Security Administration, Peace Corps and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.
• The U.S. price tag so far for the no-fly zone in Libya already tops hundreds of millions of dollars, and the cost could jump significantly if operations drags on. As of Tuesday, the U.S.and European coalition had fired 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles priced more than one million dollars a piece. B-2 stealth bombers dispatched from Missouri to bomb Libyan sites cost at least $10,000 each, for one hour of operation.
• Meanwhile, U.S. Operations in Libya are causing headaches for some government contractors and grantees in that country. GovExec reports, more than $25 million is spent by the State Department and US AID on private companies, universities and nongovernmental organizations in Libya. Many of the workers have reportedly evacuated or fled the country until fighting dies down.
• Folks at the Federal Trade Commission are as busy as ever. They’re reporting a rise in what’s called imposter scams. For the first time, these scams made FTC’s top ten consumer complaints list. These are scams where the bad guys pretend to be a federal agency or a charity, and claim you’ve won money in a non-existent sweepstakes. FTC lawyer Betsy Broder tells USA Today that it is hard to say whether the scams are happening more often, or if people are just more savvy. But she says the FTC is fielding calls every day from people asking about these imaginary sweepstakes.
• Customs and Border Patrol agents caught 13 illegal immigrants wearing U.S. Marine uniforms at a border patrol checkpoint east of San Diego. The immigrants were in a white van that was stopped March 14. The van had a U.S. government license plate with an altered number, a spokesman said. He did not know where the group obtained the military uniforms. The immigrants all had Marine-style haircuts and the name tag “Perez” on their camouflage uniforms, U.S. Marine Corps officials told the Los Angeles Times. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Border Patrol were conducting a joint investigation of the incident. NCIS spokesman Ed Buice said he couldn’t discuss details, but “there are several obvious questions that need to be answered.”

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