Thursday federal headlines – April 23, 2015

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal News Radio each day. It is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com reade...

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 Ways and Means Committee said the Internal Revenue Service isn’t doing all that it could under a tighter budget. The committee isn’t happy the IRS paid bonuses to agency employees and used official time during the workday. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson recently called customer service at the IRS the worst it’s been since 2001. (Federal News Radio)
  • The House passed a major cyber bill on a vote of 307 to 116. The measure gives liability protection to companies that share cyber data with the government. Advocates of the bill said it would help both the public and private sectors boost their cyber defenses. But opponents think it would lead to more surveillance from the National Security Agency. The House plans to vote on a separate bill today, which protects companies that share data specifically with the Homeland Security Department. The White House said it supports both bills. (The Hill)
  • A new Pentagon cybersecurity strategy states for the first time publicly that the U.S. military plans to use cyberwarfare as an option in conflicts with enemies. The 33-page strategy said the Defense Department “should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary’s command and control networks … military-related critical infrastructure … and weapons capabilities.” The Pentagon plans to release the new strategy today. A 2011 version didn’t say much about offensive cyber capabilities, only defensive ones. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the new version might deter some enemies from trying cyber attacks of their own. (Federal News Radio)
  • Veterans Affairs Department executives said they’ve launched a top-down review of how the agency handles disability claims. They pledged to punish employees who falsify data. Danny Pummill, VA’s principal deputy undersecretary for benefits, told a House panel, managers in Philadelphia and other locations may have pressured line workers too hard to cut backlogs. Philadelphia is in the cross hairs of VA’s inspector general. Assistant IG Linda Halliday said Philadelphia is the worst office she’s seen. She said two high-level executives are under special investigation for what she called blatant disregard of policies. A report last week detailed mishandled mail, altered quality reviews and delays of nearly a year in responding to some veterans’ questions. (Federal News Radio)
  • Sen.Tom Carper (D-Del.) wants to make sure federal pay and benefits aren’t the target of next year’s budget. He wrote a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.). Carper said human capital management is critical for agencies to carry out their missions. He cited the Government Accountability Office’s high risk list. Human capital management has been on that list since 2001. Carper said federal employees have already contributed $120 billion to deficit reduction, through pay freezes, increased retirement contributions and furloughs. (Senate Homeland Security & Govermental Affairs Commitee)
  • An agency is looking for ideas to combat illegal wildlife trade. The U.S. Agency for International Development launched the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. Individuals and organizations can submit their technology ideas in the fight against wildlife trafficking and poaching. USAID wants the solutions to detect wildlife transit routes, including online black markets. It is also looking for ideas to strengthen sharing of data and evidence across countries. The competition is now open and applicants have 10 weeks to submit their ideas. Winners will get a half million dollars to further develop their ideas. (USAID )
  • The FCC is inviting the public to check out the prototype of its revamped website. Chief Information Officer David Bray said the new site came after six months of research and design. He said the site works on regular PCs, tablets and smartphones. It’s also more compliant with Section 508 requirements for accessibility for people with disabilities. Bray said a challenge for his team was that the FCC gets visits from both stakeholders in its actions and from the merely curious. In a blog post, Bray said the development team used analytics to find out what people wanted at FCC.gov and what pages were called up most often. (FCC)
  • Is your agency’s website mobile-friendly? If not, it might go to the dreaded page two of Google’s search rankings. A new policy from Google sorted mobile search rankings based on how mobile-friendly a website is. The search engine released a mobile-friendly test to analyze everything from text size to links to page width. NextGov tested out 28 agency websites and found more than half are mobile-friendly. Websites of the White House, National Science Foundation, Agriculture Department, Health and Human Services received Google’s seal of approval. But the Defense Department, General Services Administration, Homeland Security Department and IRS have some work to do. (NextGov)
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using some new technology to trace a listeria outbreak that’s killed 10 people so far. The technique is called whole genome sequencing. It maps the entire DNA of an organism. It’s been used for a while in medical research, but never in a live listeria outbreak. Using sequencing, CDC scientists, along with state-and-local sleuths, discovered the current listeria strain has been around for at least five years. The latest occurrence has led to the recall of a brand of ice cream made in Texas. (Federal News Radio)
  • A 95-year-old veteran of the famous Tuskegee Airmen received a Congressional Gold Medal. Sgt. Amelia Jones faced many challenges as an African American woman in the military. At the time, women couldn’t serve in the same corps as men. Jones had to volunteer and meet specific requirements from the Army to become enlisted. Jones credited her family with inspiring her to join the military. Her two older brothers served in World War One. (Army)

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