Federal Drive

Wednesday Morning Federal Newscast – June 8th

GPO wants to offer buyouts, OPM finalizes locality pay areas, Asian wasps to fight ash borers and stinkbugs

Federal News Network Staff

June 8, 2011 9:31 am

3 min read

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 Government Printing Office is asking Congress and OPM for the green light to offer buyouts. GPO says it wants to reduce staff by 330 positions, or 15 percent, to deal with belt-tightening across government. The agency employees 2,200 people. The buyouts could be worth $25,000.
OPM is releasing a final rule on locality pay. It establishes separate locality pay areas for Alaska and Hawaii. It also extends coverage for the “rest of U.S.” category to include U.S. possessions like American Samoa, Puerto Rico and Guam. The rule takes effect on July 7.
The red ink continues to pile up in government. The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit hit $929 billion for the first eight months of fiscal 2011. But it’s not all bad. That’s $6 billion less than the shortfall in the same period last year. And revenue is up by 10 percent.
GSA has chosen a contractor to develop technology infrastructure at homeland security’s new consolidated headquarters in Washington, D.C.. General Dynamics will perform the work under an $867 million contract. This is the second award in less than a year for the work. GSA gave the award to Northrop Grumman last September but pulled back after Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics protested.
A key advisory committee to the FAA says a startup broadband network interferes with the Global Positioning System. But it says that network could be modified to avoid trouble. NextGov reports the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics has found that LightSquared’s network would be incompatible with the current aviation use of GPS. Lightsquared operates in two blocks of bandwidth, one higher and one lower than where GPS operates. The higher one knocks out GPS for aircraft, the committee says. A spokesman for LightSquared says the company will be flexible and is committed to avoiding any GPS blackout.
Sonny Bhagowalia is leaving his post at GSA to become Hawaii’s first full-time CIO. He’s been GSA’s deputy associate administrator in the office of citizen services and innovative technologies since May of last year. Sources say GSA’s Bajinder Paul will probably replace Bhagowalia on an interim basis. In Hawaii, Bhagowalia will run a seven person office charged with upgrading the state’s legacy technology systems.
A decade of agricultural research into Alaska fishing is about to end. The Obama administration has targeted for closure Alaska’s only Agricultural Research Service station. It’s one of 10 closing because of budget cuts in the Agriculture Department. The Alaska station has performed research into high-value uses for the byproducts of fishing. Right now they’re mainly used in pet food, but the waste can be used to make packaging and pharmaceutical products. Unless Congress restores $42 million in cuts, though, the research will mostly cease, according to a USDA spokeswoman.
They’re using them to fight stink bugs. Now they’ll use tiny Asian wasps to fight the emerald ash borer. USA Today reports the insect has killed millions of ash trees and threatens millions more. The Agriculture Department has a lab in Michigan that raises the wasps, and today they plan to release the first batch at a nature center in Wisconsin. They hope the wasp will kill the borer, help save the trees, and won’t create any additional problems. They don’t sting and they won’t pester people.