Thursday federal headlines – September 4, 2014

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.

• President Barack Obama named Google executive Megan Smith as the new chief technology officer and former Twitter general counsel Alexander Macgillivray as the deputy CTO. (Federal News Radio)
• Federal employees can now carry over up to $500 in unused Flexible Spending Account funds from year to the next. The Office of Personnel Management says the new FSA carryover option starts in 2015. (Federal News Radio)
• The One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services contract is open for business. The General Services Administration says agencies can start buying professional services from 74 companies. GSA already opened up the small business portion of OASIS to agencies back in June. (GSA)
• Just days after her promotion, the new chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received her first list of recommendations. It comes from EEOC locals of the American Federation of Government Employees. Jenny Yang is the new EEOC chair. She’s spent several months overseeing a review of the agency’s so-called systemic program. AFGE sent her a list of 10 things to do. Topping the list are cutting the backlog of 70,000 cases, reducing telephone wait times and paying back-time an arbitrator said is due to EEOC employees. (Federal News Radio)
• Two new systems to help agencies buy technology more quickly are ongoing at the General Services Administration. The Enterprise Acquisition Solution intergrated will help users pick from standardized solicitation and award packages. The Assisted Services Information System has standardized task and delivery order management tools. GSA says ASSIST is still in the development phase. (GSA)
• A contractor that’s been in charge of a majority of federal background checks is in trouble.The Office of Personnel Managment benched Falls Church, Virginia- based USIS after the company was hacked in August. As a result, USIS is now furloughing employees and losing work, GovExec reports. The data breach for USIS came in early August. Right away the Homeland Security Department issued stop-work orders and halted the company’s security clearance work, in order to protect federal employees. USIS has been conducting personnel investigations on behalf of many agencies, including OPM and DHS. (GovExec)
• The General Services Administration is giving the greenlight for a comprehensive contracting solution. Federal agencies can now begin using the GSA’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) to purchase both commercial and non-commercial complex professional services. This morning, the agency issued a notice to proceed for OASIS and OASIS Small Business. OASIS and OASIS SB were developed in response to the government’s critical need for a hybrid, governmentwide acquisition vehicle. It’s designed to reduce duplication of contracting efforts across the government and is expected to save taxpayers money. (General Services Administration)
• The Pentagon says 200 U.S. troops will be on the ground next week in Ukraine. They’ll participate in annual exercises known as Rapid Trident. It takes place in western Ukraine. It’ll be the first presence of American ground troops in Ukraine since the crisis with Russian-backed separatists began. The exercises include forces from 15 nations. A Pentagon spokesman said they don’t involve live firing of weapons. Col. Steve Warren said the peace-keeping practice tests convoy operations, patrolling and ways to counter improvised explosive devices. Rapid Trident runs through Sept. 26. U.S. soldiers are from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Italy. (Associated Press)
• The Defense Department is taking a new crack at an ongoing problem for veterans: shifting from the military to private sector employment. The DoD is debuting an initiative that helps service members who plan to leave the military acquire civilian credentials for technical professions. With the credentials the idea is that they transition faster and more successful. To promote the initiative, DoD has created a mobile app known as the DoD Skill Bridge. The app uses texts and emails to let service members know about new jobs and training opportunities. And, on the flip side, industry members can post job-skills training opportunities grouped by hashtags. (Defense Department)
• Training for tens of thousands of Army National Guard members will just have to wait. A $101 million budget shortfall is forcing the Army to put a pin in training for some soldiers this month. The Army Times reports that the affected National Guard units are in Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Hawaii and Guam. There, reservists are being told that previously planned weekend drills for September are off. The National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon says it’s planning to submit a reprogramming request to Congress to remedy the shortfall. (Army Times)
• There will be a new man in charge of the Navy’s Mid-Atlantic Region. Rear Adm. Rick Williamson is taking over the command. Rear Adm. Dixon Smith is the outgoing commander. Navy Region Mid-Atlantic oversees shore activities and facilities in 20 states. The ceremony to commemorate the leadership shift will be held at Naval Station Norfolk. Williams assumed command of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific in July 2013. (Associated Press)
• Big banks can breathe a sigh of relief. An official widely seen as their nemesis is out at the Justice Department. Tony West, the number three man in the department, is leaving his job on Sept. 15. West has been the chief negotiator in the Justice Department’s lawsuits against major banks, so far securing $30 billion in settlements from Wall Street. West has not said where he is going when he departs. He was appointed to be acting Associate Attorney General in March 2012 and then confirmed by the Senate a year later. (Associated Press)
• Healthcare spending in the U.S. is about to accelerate. That’s according to a new study by the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Spending patterns will have big implications for federal discretionary budgets. That’s because Medicare and Medicaid account for a big portion of the $3 trillion per year spent on health care. The actuary says spending will grow 6 percent annually between next year and 2023. By then, healthcare spending will grow from 17 percent of the economy to 19 percent. More people covered under the Affordable Care Act is one reason for the growth. CMS says an aging population along with expensive tests and new drugs will also spur spending. (Health Affairs)
• Slightly fewer Americans are using federal food assistance programs, but the numbers are still historically high. The latest Agriculture Department report shows, more than 14 percent of U.S. households say that at least once during the year, they didn’t have access to enough food. That amounts to 17.5 million households. Of the families who classified themselves as food-insecure, 60 percent had used federal food stamp or school lunch programs. For 2013, Arkansas had the highest percentage of food-insecure families, North Dakota the lowest. Figures come from an annual Census Bureau survey as a supplement to its Current Population Survey. (USDA)

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