Monday federal headlines – March 2, 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.

• The Veterans Affairs Department watchdog found that a regional office in Arkansas changed the dates on disability claims. The changes make it seem that the office has made more progress on cutting down its backlog. Staff at the Little Rock facility told the inspector general they were following guidance from the Veterans Benefits Administration. Those instructions tell the staff to adjust dates to the “date of discovery” instead of date of receipt. But the IG found an average of 20 months difference between those two dates. VBA terminated that guidance in January after first suspending it last June. (Gov Exec/VA)
• The National Institutes of Health has put out a new challenge. Its goal: a wearable device that measures blood alcohol level in real time. NIH wants the device to be low-profile. The design can be anything from jewelry to clothing, or something else a person can wear. The agency is looking for ideas from the public and private sectors. Current technology can monitor alcohol levels in 30-minute intervals, but NIH wants something more frequent. The device should also be able to store and interpret data, and transmit it wirelessly to a smartphone. The challenge is open until Dec. 1. Winners will be announced next February. (GPO)
• A workforce shortage in the Air Force has finally convinced Congress to let some A-10 Thunderbolt 2 aircraft go into mothballs. The Air Force received permission to put a total of 36 A-10s in its backup aircraft inventory. The only reason Congress approved the Air Force’s move is the service doesn’t have enough aircraft maintenance employees. By moving 18 A-10s now and another 18 later in 2015, the Air Force has freed up maintenance experts to work on the new F-35 Lightning 2 program. The Defense Department has been seeking to retire the A-10 but Congress has continually blocked those plans. (Air Force)
• People, modernization and stewardship — the Air Force is saying it can’t focus on those priorities under sequestration-level funding. The miltiary branch is the smallest it’s been since 1947. Secretary Deborah Lee James told the House Appropriations Committee the Air Force needs to stop downsizing. She wants to bring active guard and reserve strength to 492,000. James said that will fill gaps in the Air Force’s cyber and maintenance teams. The Secretary also wants to expand sexual assault prevention programs. James requested an additional $10 billion above sequestration levels. (DoD)
• Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) has repaid $40,000 dollars for his congressional office decor. The money comes from his personal checking account. Schock had decorated his office in the style of the TV show “Downton Abbey.” Schock had come under fire for using campaign funds to pay for the re-decorating, along with private air travel, a massage and tickets to a Katy Perry concert. Schock’s office said office expense accounts usually pay for decorating, but in this case says Schock felt it appropriate to pay the costs himself. (Federal News Radio)
• The days of pay-and-chase in the Medicare and Medicaid programs could be coming to an end. The House Ways and Means Committee approved the Protecting Integrity of Medicare Act last week to give the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services additional tools to fight fraud. Under the bill, CMS would give incentives to Medicare Administrative Contractors to stop the more than $60 billion in fraud, waste and abuse the programs face each year. CMS would be required to share information on fraudsters with state and local organizations. CMS also would link contract payments to accuracy goals for Medicare contractors and penalize the vendors who do not meet their goals. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) plans to introduce a companion bill in the coming weeks. In fiscal 2014, Medicaid had an improper payment rate of 6.7 percent, up from 5.8 percent last year. (Rep. Peter Roskam)
• Agencies faced a 15 percent increase in the number of cybersecurity incidents in fiscal 2014. The Office of Management and Budget sent its annual Federal Information Security Act report to Congress late Friday detailing progress and challenges. OMB said agencies reported nearly 70,000 information security incidents last year up . But OMB warns that the increase in the number of incidents doesn’t necessarily means agencies are at more risk than before. The White House said the rise in cyber attacks or threats also comes from a better understanding of what is happening on their computer networks. The most common threat agencies faced, according to the DHS U.S. CERT, was from the mishandling of paper documents with personal information or other sensitive data. The second most common problem was scans, probes or attempted access. Denial of service and phishing attacks — two of the most common among the public and private sectors were extremely low — less than 100 of each last year among the CFO Act agencies. (White House)

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