Friday federal headlines – February 27, 2015

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.

• Former General Services Administration Administrator Dan Tangherlini will be the chief operating officer of Artemis Real Estate Partners. Tangherlini said his main job will be to help the company grow. His first day is March 30. (Federal News Radio)
• The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general. The 12-to-8 vote sends her nomination to the full Senate. Some committee members disagreed with Lynch over her support for President Barack Obama’s immigration policies. Lynch will need a majority vote from the Senate to be confirmed. She’s likely to get approval. It’s uncertain when the floor vote will happen. (Federal News Radio)
• Some lawmakers want their paycheck withheld if the Homeland Security Department shuts down. Rep. Brad Ashford (D-Neb.) introduced the No Homeland Security, No Pay Act. The bill would withhold pay for members of Congress until DHS employees get their paychecks. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said he would refuse pay as long as DHS is shut down. Rep. Gwen Graham (D-Fla.) is a co-sponsor of the bill. She said she’ll donate her pay to charity during the shutdown. (Rep. Brad Sherman/Gov Exec)
• The House will vote today on a bill to keep the Homeland Security Department funded for another three weeks. Senate Democrats signaled they would agree to the measure. A full-year funding bill is bogged down over language curtailing President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration. The House version contains the language, the latest Senate version does not. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn’t want to let DHS funding lapse tonight at midnight. (Federal News Radio)
• Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald told senators he was committed to a law allowing some veterans to obtain health care at non-VA facilities. Members of the Veterans Affairs Committee wondered why so few veterans have signed up for the service — just 27,000 out of the 8.6 million who received special cards. McDonald wants to redirect some of the $10 billion appropriated for the law. But senators on both sides of the aisle nixed that idea. Some veterans are confused by a provision requiring them to live at least 40 miles from the nearest VA facility. The law passed in the wake of revelations of long wait times at VA hospitals. ( Federal News Radio )
• A veterans advocacy group wants to turn the Veterans Health Administration into a non-profit group. Concerned Veterans of America recommended splitting VHA into two parts. One would focus on veterans’ health care, and the other would manage health insurance. GovExec reports, it would be similar to Amtrak — independent from the government, but still with some federal funding. Concerned veterans said the change would give the agency incentive to be more efficient, because it would compete with the private sector for patients. Veterans could choose to stay in the VHA health care system, or obtain care from private providers. VA Secretary Bob McDonald did not respond positively to the proposal. (Gov Exec )
• The CIA will launch its own private app store next month. Federal Times reports, the agency will create the store in a private cloud environment through Amazon Web Services. CIA Chief Information Officer Doug Wolfe said the apps are specifically designed to meet the Intelligence Community’s needs. CIA employees can sample an application before buying, to see if it meets their requirements. They can also subscribe to third-party apps, or download open source applications. Wolfe said he expects the number of apps to grow over time. (Federal Times)
• Investigators found 32,000 emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner. The problem: They don’t know how many are new. They’ll have to compare the emails to the ones that have already been made public. The investigators recovered the emails from old computer tapes used to back up the agency’s email system. It took them two weeks to find the computer tapes and technicians spent about four months finding Lerner’s emails on the tapes. The IRS told Congress last year it lost those emails when Lerner’s hard drive crashed in 2011. (Federal News Radio)
• The Army’s 101st Airborne Division is heading home from its latest mission. It’s formally wrapping up its work in countering the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The Wall Street Journal reports soldiers will soon return to Fort Bliss, Texas, where they will undergo 21 days of medical monitoring. About 100 troops will head to Africa to mentor Liberian armed forces. At the height of the mission, the Army had nearly 2,700 troops in West Africa. The mission commander, Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, said a big challenge was preventing mission creep. He didn’t want to have the Army doing things that would collapse once it left. (Wall Street Journal)
• Federal inspectors general would receive a power boost under a new Senate bill. It would let them subpoena contractor employees and former federal employees. IGs would have access to agency computer data without obtaining permission first. Federal Times reports the bill would also require the Government Accountability Office of track IG vacancies. IGs would have to keep Congress better informed about agency misconduct. The bill is sponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), along with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) (Federal Times)

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