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Thursday federal headlines – February 12, 2015

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com reade...

Federal News Network Staff

February 12, 2015 7:31 am

5 min read

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive and In Depth radio shows each day. Our headlines are updated twice per day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon — with the latest news affecting federal employees and contractors.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board needs a new manager for the TSP’s C-fund. The board issued a request for proposal. It’s asking for a firm that has experience managing S&P 500 assets and securities lending. It wants to award a contract between April and June of this year. (Federal News Radio)
Federal contractors who knowingly perform faulty background checks would get banned from doing future investigations. That’s according to the Security Clearance Accountability, Reform and Enhancement Act. Sen. Jon Tester (D- Mont.) is reintroducing that bill. It also requires agencies to update their policies deciding which positions need a security clearance. (Sen. Jon Tester)
A former Postal Service contracting officer and a mail delivery contractor were charged in a bribery scheme. Gregory Cooper, the contracting officer, allegedly solicited and accepted bribes from contractor Barbara Murphy. In exchange, Cooper helped Murphy win contracts for mail delivery. The Justice Department said Cooper accepted cash deposits into his bank account, car loan payments and a college tuition payment for his daughter. Through the scheme, the Postal Service awarded Murphy with nine contracts worth $1.5 million. (Justice Department)
What’s former Secret Service official A.T. Smith doing now? It’s a mystery. The former deputy director of the Secret Service was forced to resign from his position earlier this week amid ongoing security and management problems at the agency. He was said to have taken a different job within the Homeland Security Department. The new role is with Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Other than that, we don’t know any details. No one has disclosed Smith’s new job title, responsibilities or salary. (Federal News Radio)
A new bill would prevent federal employees from watching pornography on government-issued devices. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) introduced the bill. The measure comes after an inspector general report on the Environmental Protection Agency. The audit found one employee watched six hours of porn a day in the office. That same employee also downloaded 7,000 pornographic files onto his government computer. Meadows said most agencies already have rules in place to prevent employees from accessing porn, but it still happens. He also said downloading porn poses a cyber threat. (Federal News Radio)
One full day has passed since President Barack Obama sent Congress legislation backing the use of military force against Islamic State militants. Yet neither a single Republican or Democrat has stepped forward to sponsor the plan. But both sides expressed caution and raised questions. Obama has been using a post-9/11 authorization to conduct air strikes against ISIS. So far, the U.S. has launched more than 2,000 strikes against the terror army. Earlier this week, a bombing run in Afghanistan killed a former Taliban commander who had made a pledge for ISIS. The president says his proposal is not a call for a new ground war on the scale of Iraq or Afghanistan. (Federal News Radio)
Military academies are seeing the most dramatic decline in reported sexual assaults in 10 years. The data looks at students at West Point, the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy. Sixty-one students reported sexual assaults in the 2013-14 school year. That’s down from 70 the year before. An anonymous Pentagon survey also showed the number of students saying they experienced unwanted sexual contact is also down. Eight percent of female students said they experienced unwanted sexual contact last year, compared to 12.4 percent the year before. The Pentagon said the numbers represent a decrease of 200 assault victims. (Federal News Radio)
The Defense Contract Management Agency responded to a possible cyber breach. DCMA spokesman David Wray told Krebs on Security, the agency detected suspicious activity on its site in late January. It took the site offline while investigating. Wray said it hasn’t detected any breach of Defense data or personal information. But he didn’t give any more details about the suspected hack. DCMA employees said the agency has been having major system issues. (The Hill/Krebs Security)
John Streufert, the brains and energy behind the government’s move to continuous monitoring of government networks, is leaving government. He’ll step down after three years at Homeland Security and more and 25 years in government. Streufert is currently the director of federal network resilience at DHS. He pioneered the idea of continuous monitoring while at the State Department. Streufer’s boss at DHS, assistant secretary Andy Ozment, said Streufert will become a senior adviser. (Federal News Radio)
It’s not too late for agencies to begin preparing for new approaches to financial risk management. This spring, the White House will publish a new version of Circular A-123, the document that governs internal controls. The update will become effective for fiscal 2016. The rewrite puts enterprise risk management front and center. The required controls won’t change, but the new circular will force agencies to think differently about risk. That’s according to Mike Wetklow, branch chief at the Office of Management and Budget. Rather than looking at things activity by activity, enterprise risk management takes a holistic view. Wetklow said that can bring opportunities to do things differently before something goes wrong. (Federal News Radio)
The latest version of the Government Accountability Office’s biennial high- risk list looks pretty much like the one from 2013. None of the programs listed then improved enough to where they could escape the list. But GAO added two programs: Federal IT acquisition and operations, and health care by Veterans Affairs. In congressional testimony, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said it was an urban legend that once on the list, a program can’t get off. He told lawmakers, 18 of the 32 programs have met most of the criteria for removal. He said he expected most of them to be removed in the next two years. Referring to IT acquisition, Dodaro said the GAO has made 737 recommendations over the past few years. But agencies have only implemented a quarter of them. (Federal News Radio)