Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – June 7th

Interior holds a logo design competition

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.

  • Three House lawmakers have introduced a bill to cut the federal workforce by 10 percent by the year 2015. For every three federal employees that retire, only one new employee will be hired, according to the legislation. Sponsors are Republicans Darrell Issa of California, Dennis Ross of Florida and Jason Chaffetz of Utah. The bill draws on recommendations released from the president’s debt commission. Lawmakers also don’t want agencies to make up for the employees by hiring contractors. Federal employee unions came out strongly against the new bill.
  • The SEC has been called before a congressional subcommittee. The hearing’s title: “The Securities and Exchange Commission’s $500 Million-dollar Fleecing of America.” The Washington Business Journal reports that the hearing is scheduled for June 16 and will focus on the SEC’s leasing practices. The SEC’s internal watchdog says the SEC “grossly overestimated” the amount of space it would need when it leased space near Union Station and at Constitution Center. The SEC was granted independent leasing authority in 1990.
  • The Pentagon wants ethics certifications from vendors who hire former senior defense officials. Defense has proposed new rules for defense contractors. It would ensure that companies making offers on DoD contracts are in compliance with regulations on former federal employees. That includes upholding restrictions on workers from representing their new company to their former agency for at least two years.
  • Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says he will resign this summer. Goolsbee wants to return to teaching economics at the University of Chicago this fall. Goolsbee is one of President Obama’s longest serving aides. He was an economic adviser on the 2004 Senate campaign and the senior economic adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign.
  • Dan Blair will be the next president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration. Blair is currently a commissioner with the Postal Regulatory Commission and served as its first chairman. Blair also served as deputy director and acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. Blair’s current term expires in October 2012 but he will leave early to take over full-time responsibilities at NAPA in early July. Blair became a NAPA fellow in 2008 and is replacing outgoing president and CEO Kristine Marcy.
  • Airlines looking for ways to win back passengers put off by long and irritating airport security measures may have one. The International Air Transport Association has unveiled plans for a system intended to sharply reduce check-in time. The new system would feature iris scanners to match a passenger’s eye to his passport and information chips inside passports.
  • Are you creative? Think you can come up with a logo for an entire agency? Then the Department of the Interior wants to hear from you. Interior would like a logo for use on clothing like hats, t-shirts and jackets. It’s running a design contest using crowdspring.com. Interior says it’s looking for a logo that is elegant, simple and meaningful. DoI is a cabinet-level agency with responsibility for land management, energy production, conservation, and more. It also wants the logo to appeal to its 70,000 employees. There’s a $1,000 prize at stake, but federal employees are inelegible for the prize money.

More news links

Pentagon Says Northrop’s Global Hawk Drone Isn’t ‘Operationally Effective’ (Bloomberg)

Woman: Weiner sex was on Congress phone (UPI)

3 women charged with robbing vets’ graves (UPI)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on In Depth with Francis Rose:

–Financial management at DoD takes a lot of shots, but it’s not all bad. Expert analysis from VADM Lou Crenshaw.

–You need to prime the talent pump at your agency to make sure it continues to flow. Advice from former ODNI Chief Human Capital Officer Ron Sanders.

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

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