Monday Morning Federal Newscast – May 16th

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.

  • Homeland Security will do without a comprehensive overhaul of its finance, acquisition and asset management systems. The department will instead try to bridge existing systems and make small improvements. The agency has canceled a nearly half billion dollar contract with CACI. That move comes after protests from other bidders for the big project. The canceled project was called Transformation and Systems Consolidation, or TASC. Peggy Sherry, assistant CFO at Homeland Security, told a House panel that DHS only spent a fraction of the money allocated for TASC.
  • Vendors will have more time to protest some task and delivery orders under a bill cleared by the Senate. It gives vendors another five years to protest civilian agency orders worth more than $10 million. It would extend the current provision that ends in September. The House is considering a similar bill.
  • Two Democratic lawmakers want to suspend the use of OMB’s Circular A-76 outsourcing process. Senator Barbara Mikulski and Representative Paul Sarbanes introduced companion bills detailing changes to how agencies should outsource work. If passed, the bill would temporarily suspend outsourcing of federal work at the five largest agencies until they make the changes outlined in the bill.
  • Medicare Trustees used the annual report to praise the virtues of health care reform enacted in 2010. The latest report says Medicare will remain solvent for eight years longer than it would have, had the Affordable Health Care Act not been passed. Now, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is projected to remain solvent until 2024. The fund would have dried up in 2016 otherwise, the report states.
  • Federal inspections, spooked by post-earthquake events, have completed their inspections of U.S. nuclear power plants. And they don’t totally like what they see. The Wall Street Journal reports, many U.S. reactors are found to be vulnerable to severe earthquakes, floods or fires. Reactors are hardened against hazards, but in some cases the emergency cooling and firefighting systems are not. In all, the NRC finds safety gaps at 104 reactors. The agency promises to post reports from all of its inspections on the agency Web site.
  • A former employee of the Agriculture Department might be making a return to the Department, but this time as a contractor. The Agriculture Department is expected to issue a contract to a group co-founded by former employee Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod was forced to resign last year after controversy over video of a speech made her appear racially biased. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack tried to re-hire Sherrod after her full remarks were made public, but Sherrod chose not to return. Sherrod’s organization will be contracted to conduct civil rights assessments of the USDA’s agricultural loan services.
  • Advocates for raw milk are lobbying Congress on Monday, and they won’t come empty handed. The “Grassfed on the Hill” group is bringing a cow with them, and plan to milk it near the Russell Senate building. The group is protesting federal action against a Pennsylvania dairy farmer. He’s accused of distributing un-pastuerized milk to clients in other states. Farmers in the group say that private contracts with clients for milk is outside federal jurisdiction.

More news links

Office of Management and Budget Employees to Push to Unionize (ABCNews)

Ala. families moving into new FEMA trailers

Mars landing sites narrowed down to final 4

More errors surface at military crime lab as Senate seeks inquiry (McClatchy via Stars&Stripes)

And Finally…

All the Dogs Want to Kill Me – Letter carrier photographs dogs along his route.

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