Monday federal headlines – June 1, 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.

• Congress is back this week. The House Appropriations Committee will likely mark up its defense spending bill tomorrow. The Senate could consider the defense authorization bill later this week, once it finishes its debates over sections of the Patriot Act. (Bloomberg Government)
• The National Security Agency can no longer collect phone records in bulk, for now anyway. The Senate failed to renew parts of the Patriot Act, which expired yesterday. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is one of the most vocal opponents of the Patriot Act. In the next few days, the Senate could pass the USA Freedom Act, which the House already passed and the White House supports. The Senate voted 77 to 17 to move forward with the USA Freedom Act. A week ago, the bill fell three votes short of the 60 needed to advance in the Senate. (Federal News Radio)
• As many as 20,000 current and former employees of the Indian Health Service will receive compensation for overtime they weren’t paid for. The agency reached a settlement with three unions, giving each employee back pay of up to $33,000. The total settlement is worth $80 million. It covers people who worked for the Indian Health Service as far back as 2006. The majority are native Americans. The employees claimed they were forced to work overtime without extra pay, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. (Federal News Radio)
• The agreement took place a year ago, and now the money will begin flowing. Some 78,000 military service members will start receiving checks from a company that overcharged them for student loans. Checks will range from $10 to $100,000. The Justice Department said the average compensation will be $771. The money comes from a $60 million settlement loan originator Navient made with Justice. Justice said Navient, part of Sallie Mae, failed to cap interest rates for service members at 6 percent. That’s a violation of the Service- members Relief Act. Checks will start arriving June 12. (Justice Department)
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has subpoenaed an IRS official over the agency’s handling of Freedom of Information Act requests. The IRS offered Commissioner John Koskinen to testify on the issue. The agency said he’s the most appropriate witness because the hearing covers issues outside the scope of one office. But Chaffetz specifically wants the official who oversees FOIA requests. That’s Mary Howard, the IRS director of privacy, governmental liaison and disclosure. The hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday. (Federal News Radio )
• The Agriculture Department asked industry for help in responding to the bird flu outbreak. Contractors will assist in areas like transportation and environmental disposal of affected birds. USDA already has contracts with vendors to help with bird flu, but it seeks more because of the size and scope of the virus. Since December 2014, more than 43 million birds have died from the flu. USDA said the virus spreads quickly among chickens and turkeys. (Aphis)
• It’s a bad idea to charge your subordinates to attend a party, then give the proceeds to a manager’s wife. Yet that’s what happened in the Philadelphia regional office of the Veterans Affairs Department. The inspector general found that Assistant Director Lucy Filipov hosted a party, charging employees $30 to attend. At the party, they had their fortunes told and received psychic readings from lost loved ones. According to the IG, money collected went to the wife of Gary Hodge, director of the Philadelphia center’s pension management office. The IG said Filipov misused her senior position, and Hodge failed to report his wife’s financial gain on disclosure forms. VA is weighing its options after the Justice Department declined to press criminal charges. (Federal News Radio)
• The Coast Guard defended its cleanup response to an oil spill off the coast of California. The move comes after environmentalists complained of little clean- up on the first day of the oil spill, and California senators called the response insufficient. Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams said workers were on the ground when the spill happened and are working to stop the spill from getting worse. They placed booms in the water to corral the oil and vacuumed oil from the site of the burst pipeline. (Federal News Radio)
• Overwhelmed by industry comments, the General Services Administration delayed the final version of a major telecommunications request for proposals. Federal Times reports that now the RFP will come out some time around September, instead of July. It’s the Enterprise Infrastructure Services deal, part of the Network Services 2020 project. NS 2020 is supposed to replace the existing Networx contracts. Those were scheduled to expire in 2017, but the GSA extended them another three years. The draft RFP for the new contract drew more than 1,600 responses. (FBO)

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