Tuesday Morning Federal Newscast – March 8th

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin and Amy Morris discuss throughout the show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

• Senate test votes on Republican and Democratic budget initiatives to fund government for the rest of the year could happen as early as today. Both plans are expected to fail and the idea behind the votes is to prod both sides towards keeping the government running after a short-term funding measure expires in two weeks. Another bill would be necessary to prevent a government shutdown, which neither side claims is desirable.
• While public opinion of federal workers may be low, the public does like government services. A recent Harris Interactive poll found adults overwhelmingly support crime fighting services and programs such Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The poll was meant to highlight the difficulty lawmakers face in choosing what programs to reduce funding to. Of the thirteen different types of government services and programs, foreign aid was the only one not supported by a majority of the public.
• The Homeland Security Department has decreased the number of non-competitive contracts that it awards. It has also done a better job os managing those awards, according to an audit released by DHS’s Inspector General. The audit found the agency spent $1.3 billion on non-competitive contracts in 2010. That nearly half from $3.4 billion spent the year before. The report also found competitive contracts awarded went up from 76 percent in 2009 to 86 percent in 2010. It’s the highest percentage achieved by the department.
• The Military’s research chief is under scrutiny over a government contract awarded to her private company. Regina Dugan is the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. FederalTimes reports a company Dugan founded received a $400,000 contract from the agency last year. DARPA says its general counsel reviewed the situation and found no wrongdoing.
• President Obama will nominate Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the next ambassador to China. Locke is the son and grandson of Chinese immigrants, and the first Chinese American to serve as Commerce Secretary. He would succeed Jon Huntsman, whose resignation is effective in April. Locke has touted the economic relationship he’s helped build with China, and says U.S. exports to China have risen 34-percent in the past year. A senior administration official says a formal announcement could come as early as Tuesday.
• The United States Post Office is looking for a political and media savvy person to become the next deputy post master general. The Washington Post reports USPS has hired headhunting firm SpencerStuart to find a candidate for the job. According to job description they’re looking for someone to be the voice of USPS. The candidate will need to represent the agency to Congress, regulators, watchdogs and customers. They’re looking for 20 years experience working with Capitol Hill and White House regulators.
• CGI Federal has hired an expert in global energy management to help strengthen its relationship with the General Services Administration. Billy Mays is an expert in sustainability and high-performance buildings. CGI says in a press release that Mays will be a Director on CGI’s GSA account. His role at CGI will be to help clients increase efficiency, generate savings, and promote long-term sustainability initiatives. Mays is a U.S. Green Building Council accredited LEED Green Associate. He led the creation of a new division for the Institute for building Technology and Safety. Before that he established the energy and sustainability practice for BAE Systems.
• The Justice Department moves to streamline its criminal investigations into the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It consolidates work done by three offices and divisions into a single task force. The Wall Street Journal reports Justice’s criminal, and environment and natural resources divisions had investigations undeway. So did its Eastern Louisiana District Office. Deputy Attorney General James Cole says, the Deepwater Horizon Task Force will prevent overlap and duplication of effort. Senior Counsel John Buretta will lead the task force.

More news links

DHS extends Real ID compliance date to January 2013 (NextGov)

Female GIs struggle with higher rate of divorce

2-year saga of the tax enforcer who wasn’t there

New Guantanamo trials could include 9/11 suspects

Navy says 2 sailors die in Camp Pendleton accident

Video shows NYC police helicopter view on 9/11

Space shuttle Discovery heads home to retirement

NASA in a sticky situation over meteorite alien life report (International Business Times)

THIS AFTERNOON ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Coming up today on The DorobekInsider:

** Government reorganization — President Obama talked about it in the State of the Union address. How’s that initiative going? We’ll hear from the person who is helping to lead that initiative at OMB.

** And open source in government — what agencies are using open source software… And why would they use it? We’ll talk to an expert about a survey of open source

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