Friday federal headlines – October 10, 2014

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.

• Agencies could have fewer reporting requirements. The Office of Personnel Management issued a proposed rule that eliminates the number of reports agencies need to submit about their progress on certain human resources programs. The public comment period is open until Dec. 9. (GPO)
• Congress needs to decide by the end of November whether it should continue mass transit benefits for federal employees. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said failing to decide on a series of temporary tax credits — like the mass transit benefit — could push back the start of the 2015 tax filing season. (GovExec)
• Money to fund the Defense Department’s Ebola efforts in West Africa is stalled in Congress. That’s because Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) wants more detail about the operation from the Obama administration. He’s ranking member of the appropriations committee. The Pentagon is seeking the reprogramming of a billion dollars. In the House, Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the Armed Services committee, voted to approve $700 million. As did Rep. Hal Rogers (R- Ky.), chairman of the Appropriations committee. Reprogramming requires the vote of the top Republican and Democratic members of the armed services and appropriations committees of the House and Senate. (Federal News Radio)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using cell phone data to track Ebola in West Africa. The CDC can’t pinpoint the exact origination point of calls to report new cases, but they can pinpoint the originating cell tower. By combining that information with other geo-spatial information, they plan to compare the call data with census information such as population densities and hospital locations. Liberia established a four-digit hotline phone number for people to report Ebola. Many parts of the country lack landlines. (NextGov)
• The Veterans Affairs Department broke records in processing disability and pension claims. The agency made its way through 1.3 million claims in fiscal year 2014. It broke last year’s record by 150,000 claims. VA’s disability claims backlog has hit its lowest number in four years. It’s down 60 percent from the peak in March 2013. These numbers put VA on track to meet its 2015 goals. The agency says moving to an electronic system makes claims processing faster and more accurate. It now processes more than 90 percent of claims electronically. ( Veterans Affairs)
• The influx of unaccompanied children to the U.S. reached its lowest level in two years. About 68,000 minors crossed the Southwest border in fiscal year 2014. The Obama administration projected 60,000 minors. Gang-related violence in Central American countries pushed many minors to the U.S. But the number of children crossing the border has been declining since June. That month, more than 10,000 unattended children crossed the border. The Washington Post reports the number dropped to less than 2,500 in September. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says increased border security helps drive the numbers down. (Washington Post)
• Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko has a question for the Air Force: Why did it spend nearly a half billion dollars on airplanes, only to turn them into scrap metal? The planes were Italian-made transports for use by the Afghan Air Force. But the Afghans couldn’t maintain the planes and the program ended after they’d only flown for a few hours. In a letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, Sopko asks whether the Air Force considered taking the planes back and re-selling them. The total cost of the G-222 planes was $486 million. The value of the scrap metal was $32,000. (SIGAR)
• The Pentagon wants to station American aircraft at the Turkish air base at Incirlik. The base is about 100 miles from the Syrian border. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says that will help in the fight against Islamic State militants. Hagel also asks for an agreement with Turkey to help train and equip moderate Syrian forces. He says Turkey’s military capabilities are valuable in fighting the militants. U.S. officials and Turkish leaders are discussing the issues this week. (Federal News Radio)
• The Federal Aviation Administration is in search of cloud storage options for its Aeronautical Navigational Products. Right now, it stores aeronautical charts in digital format on an FTP server. AeroNav Products no longer sells paper charts. FAA says the cloud solution must be secure and reliable. It wants the public to have access to the files 24 hours a day. Responses to the market survey are due Tuesday, Oct. 14. ( “target=”_blank”>FBO)
• Cray won a $26 million contract from the Defense Department for a new supercomputer. The DoD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program will acquire a Cary XC machine to run complex simulations. The supercomputer will be accompanied by a four-petabyte storage subsystem that includes solid state disks. The Army Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Alabama, awarded the contract. The machine will be installed this year at the Army Research Laboratory’s Defense Super Computing Resource Center in Aberdeen, Maryland. (Cray)
• Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said the United States health system is prepared for more cases of Ebola. She told a gathering of the Kaiser Family Foundation that the number of cases worldwide will rise before it levels off. The U.S. has started screening passengers from West Africa at five airports. Burwell said screening is effective because it’s caused 80 people to be pulled from lines. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said he doesn’t want Ebola to become the next AIDs. The presidents of the three West African countries most heavily stricken by Ebola called on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to come to their aid, both with financial and logistical help. U.S. military planes touch down and begin unloading in Monrovia, Liberia. (Associated Press)

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