Friday morning federal headlines - June 8, 2012
Friday - 6/8/2012, 9:35am EDT
The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal
Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp 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 is cleaning house. It plans to rid its schedules of
outdated technology. This could be the last chance agencies have to buy a
typewriter, for example. GSA said there are about 8,000
contracts for things that are obsolete or unpopular. It will take trophies,
commemorative and promotional items off the schedules too. The agency estimated it
would save $24 million. It is also looking at more than 19,000 contracts to see
which industries are over-saturated. (Federal News Radio)
- The National Weather Service
said it may furlough employees to close a budget gap. Each of its 5,000
workers would have to take 13 days off without pay this summer. The news came as
hurricane season kicked off. The National Weather Service Employees Organization
said staff members were paying for their leaders' mistakes. The agency faces a $36
million shortfall. An internal investigation found the agency had wrongly shifted
millions of dollars between programs.That led to the resignation of director Jack
Hayes last month. (Federal News Radio)
- The FBI is investigating the recent security breach at Linked In, according to
Reuters. The social network said cyber
thieves stole 6.4 million member passwords. It does not know of any accounts that
were hijacked, however. The company said the investigation is in the early stages.
The FBI is not commenting.
Meanwhile, Linked In said it has boosted security. It is disabling the passwords
that had been compromised. Users will have to reset them. Linked In attracts
mostly professionals and job seekers. (Reuters)
- Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) has called for the immediate
removal of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. In a letter to Postal Service
Board of Governors, Higgins accused Donahoe of "a complete lack of transparency
and accountability." Higgins is angry about the planned closure of several
facilities in his district in western New York. He said there was lack of public
engagement and cooperation in the process. He said he doubted Donahoe's ability to
guide the Postal Service through its current challenges. (Postal News)
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development is sitting on nearly $5
billion in Hurricane Katrina recovery funds. The Homeland Security Department
hasn't spent about a quarter of the disaster grant money it received. Sen. Tom
Coburn (R-Okla.) said those were just two examples of the billions of allocated
dollars agencies fail to spend. In a , he said the money went
unspent because of bad laws and red tape. But he also blamed the recipients of
federal dollars. He cited news reports from Michigan that said inertia and poor
local planning had led communities to sit on the money they received. (Federal
News Radio)
- There may be a lot of perks to being a member of Congress, but when it comes to air travel, they're just like us. House lawmakers gave an earful to the chief of the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday. Among their complaints were bans on carrying water bottles and razors on board and body searches of the very young and old. TSA chief John Pistole said he understood the complaints, and the agency recently decided to allow people older than 75 and younger than 12 to keep their shoes on during security checks. But when Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) suggested that passengers should be able to protect themselves with pocket knives, Pistole laid down the law saying that was a non-starter. (Federal News Radio)
- The House passed its $46 billion budget to fund Homeland Security on Thursday. Although Homeland Security programs generally enjoy bipartisan support, this bill passed along unusually partisan lines. This after several non-security related riders were added and after President Barack Obama threatened a veto. Those riders included a provision that would ban illegal immigrant detainees from seeking abortions, except in the case of rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. The bill does not include the 0.5 percent pay raise President Obama requested for all civilian federal employees. It is not expected to pass the Senate in its current form. (Federal News Radio)
- There may be a lot of perks to being a member of Congress, but when it comes to air travel, they're just like us. House lawmakers gave an earful to the chief of the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday. Among their complaints were bans on carrying water bottles and razors on board and body searches of the very young and old. TSA chief John Pistole said he understood the complaints, and the agency recently decided to allow people older than 75 and younger than 12 to keep their shoes on during security checks. But when Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) suggested that passengers should be able to protect themselves with pocket knives, Pistole laid down the law saying that was a non-starter. (Federal News Radio)
