Friday Morning Federal Newscast – May 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. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

• As the federal government faces a growing acquisition workload, hiring and training new contracting officers has been a challenge. So agencies are looking to recent retirees to help out. Agencies asked 125 annuitants to come back to the acquisitions workforce last year. Army led the way, bringing 44 retired federal workers back. The Office of Procurement Policy reports the government has hired more than 300 acquisition workers since 2006. That’s when Congress gave agencies the ability to hire retirees to help fill immediate or hard to fill positions. The Air Force and other Defense Department agencies hired the second most annuitants with 18 each. The Agriculture Department hired the most of any civilian agency with 12 and the Homeland Security Department was second among civilian agencies with nine.
• More than 30 small and mid-sized cities are losing federal anti-terrorism grants. The Homeland Security Department is pulling back $170 million from places like El Paso, Texas and New Orleans. In all, DHS has cut $780 million dollars in grant money for the 2011 budget. But the 29 biggest cities and urban areas, including New York and Washington, will continue to receive anti-terror funds. New York alone will get $151 million. DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa says smaller cities can still get federal money as part of grants distributed to states.
• Career workers at the CIA get a personal visit from President Obama today. He’s visiting CIA headquarters in Langley to thank the staff for their role in finding and killing Osama bin Laden. The president has already met personally with Navy seals who carried out the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. Seals worked under CIA direction.
• Computer Sciences Corp. will help the Transportation Department improve highway safety. CSC has landed two new DOT task orders worth $48 million over more than four years. Washington Technology reports the work involves delivering automation software that will include surface safety monitoring and advanced weather modeling. CSC will provide DOT’s Volpe Center with cloud computing, open-source and climate change technologies.
• While you were semi-hibernating all winter, they were preparing for a spring onslaught. Agriculture Department experts warn a fresh wave of stink bugs is about to plague farms and orchards in at least 33 states. Hardest hit will likely be the mid-Atlantic region. The insect’s full name is brown marmorated stink bug. It has no known North American predators. But it does have a big appetite for fruits and vegetables, including apples. Tracy Leskey, research entomologist at USDA’s Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia, says a large stink bug population headed into the winter. So it’s likely they’ll return in large numbers. Experts believe the bug first arrived from Asia in 1998, riding in a shipping box to Allentown, Pennsylvania.
• Pilots flying at night near Las Vegas over the next week may have to navigate the old-fashioned way – without GPS. The Federal Aviation Administration is warning that navigation systems based on GPS technology may be “unreliable or unavailable” within a 350 mile-radius near Las Vegas. LightSquared, based in Reston, Virginia, is field testing equipment in the area that will jam GPS signals. The tests are part of a deal LightSquared worked out with the Federal Communications Commission. It’s working on deploying an ultra-fast nationwide wireless broadband network of 40,000 transmitters and cell towers

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Senate Democrats delay action on budget plan

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on In Depth with Francis Rose:

–The three most important Federal news stories of the week, on the Federal News Countdown starting at three.

–DoD and Veterans Affairs are struggling to work together on the Federal Recovery Coordination Program. House Veterans Affairs subcommittee Chair Anne Marie Buerkle isn’t happy. She’ll tell you why.

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

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