Wednesday federal headlines – March 25, 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.

• Defense Secretary Ash Carter has gotten pushback from senior military leaders on whether the Pentagon should lift its ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces. Officials, requesting anonymity, told the Associated Press, top officers have several questions regarding service by transgender troops. These include where they would be berthed on ships, which bathrooms they would use and how their presence would affect unit cohesiveness. Last month, Carter told troops in Afghanistan, the only criterion should be whether transgenders will be excellent service members. Studies and surveys show as many as 15,000 transgender people are now on active duty, in some cases secretly. (Federal News Radio)
• The Obama Administration will plan to test what it calls a federal feedback button, a website feature it hopes will let agencies spot customer-service issues as soon as they happen. Lisa Danzig, the associate director for performance and personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget, likened the button to a Yelp for government, but on a simpler level. She said initial versions might also include kiosks in federal offices. (Federal News Radio)
• A Senate panel urged President Barack Obama and agency leaders to quickly nominate permanent inspectors general. The letter came a month after a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing, on how Congress can further support IGs’ efforts. Ten agencies have vacant IG positions, including the Interior Department, Veterans Affairs, the General Services Administration and the CIA. Interior hasn’t had a permanent IG for six years, and the IG position at VA has been vacant more than a year. Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the vacancies diminish IG offices’ ability to oversee their agencies. (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs)
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service. The Texas Republican said abolishing the agency “ain’t all that tough.” The IRS employs about 90,000 people and collects more than $2.4 trillion each year. Cruz isn’t the first lawmaker to propose eliminating the agency. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in 2013 pushed to abolish the IRS. Paul said getting the rid of the agency would “preserve our liberty.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus wants to ditch the IRS to make tax collection, as he said, simple instead of scandalous. (Federal News Radio)
• The Homeland Security Inspector General wrapped up its investigation of Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It concluded that Mayorkas improperly influenced the processing of applications from workers under the EB5 program. The three cases occurred when Mayorkas was director of Customs and Immigration Services. The IG said an extraordinary employee reported the matter. Mayorkas intervened on behalf of investment groups controlled by influential Democrats. IG John Roth said he helped efforts to secure visas in ways that created the appearance of favoritism and special access. But, he said, Mayorkas didn’t appear to break any laws. Mayorkas said he disagreed with the IG’s conclusions, but would learn from the process. (Federal News Radio)
• The Obama administration said it would slow military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The President said the U.S. would leave in place the 9,800 troops now stationed in Afghanistan. The previous plan was to downsize to 5,500 by the end of the year. President Barack Obama said the troops would help Afghanistan fight the Taliban, the Islamic State militants and other extremist groups. But the service members won’t return to combat operations — those ended last year. Obama said he still plans to finish withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of next year. (Federal News Radio)
• NASA’s Opportunity Rover completed a marathon on Mars. The rover has traveled 26.2 miles on the Red Planet. It took 11 years and 2 months to finish the journey. Opportunity has traveled the longest distance of any off-Earth vehicle. (NASA)
• The House intelligence committee unveiled a bipartisan cybersecurity bill. It’s designed to let private companies share with the government details of cybersecurity threats. The bill would grant companies liability protection if they stripped out personal information from the data znd shared it in real time through a civilian portal, most likely run by the Homeland Security Department. The House bill closely tracks a bill approved two weeks ago by the Senate intelligence committee. (Federal News Radio)
• Veterans Affairs Department leaders said they would relax a rule requiring vets to live at least 40 miles away from a VA facility in order to use outside health providers. They told Congress that would double the number of veterans eligible to use the new Choice Card program. VA had been measuring the 40 miles as the crow flies. That confused many veterans, whose actual driving distance is longer. Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said VA would calcuate distance using online map applications. But Gibson pointed out, the law as written by Congress specifically requires use of geodesic distance, or the shortest distance between two points. (Federal News Radio)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.