Friday federal headlines – April 10, 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 House plans to debate a major cyber bill later this month. The House Intelligence Committee unanimously approved the bill in March. The measures gives liability protection to private companies if they share cyber data with the government. Proponents say it will foster information sharing between the private sector and the government. That could help the nation combat potential cyber threats. But lots of privacy advocates aren’t a fan of the bill. They say it will increase government surveillance on Americans’ private information. (NextGov)
• The White House is trying something new with its website — responsive design. That means the WhiteHouse.gov homepage looks the same on a computer, phone or tablet. The administration said the changes make the site more accessible and user-friendly. So far the responsive design is only visible on the homepage. But the White House plans to revamp other parts of its site, too. Next on the to-do list are sections include the White House blog and the White House press office. (White House)
• Advocacy group Good Jobs Nation says some contractors are breaking the law. The crime: Not paying their employees enough. The group filed a complaint with the Labor Department on behalf of 65 low-wage contract workers. It said their companies violate the Service Contract Act by not giving employees the required wages and benefits. The workers include janitors at the Education Department, bus drivers for the Park Service and groundskeepers at the National Zoo. Good Jobs Nation seeks one point six million dollars in stolen wages. (GovExec)
• Six Republican members of Congress visit Yucca Mountain, Nevada to try and revive the Energy Department’s biggest project. They’re led by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Yucca Mountain was to be the storage site of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. Congress approved it in 2002 and Energy has spent $15 billion dollars preparing the site. But a funding cutoff was engineered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2007. The Obama administration ordered the project shuttered. Reid announced his retirement after 2016, so now proponents of the Yucca Mountain site hope to revive it. (Federal News Radio)
• The Veterans Affairs Department has been keeping the Office of Special Counsel busy. In its latest report, OSC said it’s helped 45 VA whistleblowers last year and so far in fiscal 2015. But the pace of incoming cases means OSC expects to help twice as many people this year as last. In some cases, OSC said it’s getting multiple corrective actions, such as job reinstatement and cash settlements. In all, the Special Counsel is examining 110 whistleblower complaints out of VA. In one case, a nurse in VA’s eastern Colorado Health Care System reported sexual assault of two VA staff members by a third employee. She was demoted to scanning documents in a windowless basement office. After OSC intervention, she got her nursing job back. (OSC)
• Cybersecurity and operation of unmanned aircraft — those are the highly sought-after jobs in the Air Force these days. That’s according to chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh the third. He said now people are applying to the Air Force specifically to do those jobs, a shift from 10 years ago. Welsh said both careers are growing by leaps and bounds. The next frontier for unmanned aircraft is how to operate them in conjunction with manned aircraft. Welsh said plenty of recruits still come to the Air Force hoping to fly conventional fighters and bombers. That’s a good thing, he said, because many of the platforms now in use by the Air Force will be around for at least another 20 years. (DoD)
• The Army drafts a doctrine for its robots and drones. Army officials said they’re concerned an enemy would use robots on the battlefield first. The military branch wants to use the unmanned systems for supply convoys and as wingmen for soldiers on foot. The Army has used some robots in Iraq and Afghanistan for bomb disposal, but it’s been on an ad-hoc basis. Now it wants a unified strategy for using those systems. The document will include the mission of robots and drones, along with acquisition strategy. (Defense News )
• A new supercomputer is coming to Argonne National Laboratory. The Energy Department awarded $200 million for the next-generation computer, which will be commissioned in 2018. The award is the third and final supercomputer investment under the CORAL initiative. The project supports future supercomputers that are five to seven times more powerful that current ones. The other two awards went to Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore laboratories. Argonne’s supercomputer, known as Aurora, will work on material to create durable batteries and solar panels. It will also look at organisms to make disease control more effective. And it will create transportation systems with engines that are quieter and more efficient. (Energy Department )

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