Press ends up the villain at Public Service town hall
May 8th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Stephen Losey
Two key themes emerged at this morning’s Town Hall with top Obama administration officials in honor of Public Service Recognition Week: First, the public often doesn’t understand or appreciate all the things federal employees do for them. And second, that’s partly because a hostile or indifferent press corps only appears interested in federal workers when they throw extravagant Vegas conferences or hire a couple of prostitutes.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius, and acting General Services Administration head Dan Tangherlini spoke with news anchor Cokie Roberts at the Partnership for Public Service’s headquarters today about the difficulties faced by federal agencies trying to spread their message.
The media criticism began with Sebelius, who said recruiting and retaining talented workers “is particularly tough when people are working a zillion hours a day, paid well below market value, and trashed day in and day out in the news media and told that they are incompetent. … [Stories about selfless feds, such as those recognized with Service to America medals] always get page 30, bottom left-hand corner [placement], one nanosecond and they’re gone. So having a little more press balance would really be helpful.”
LaHood followed up on her comments later after lauding the cooperation between Homeland Security and Amtrak to provide security for commuters, as well as the Transportation Security Administration’s airport security:
We know it’s not going to get the headlines unless something goes wrong, but so many things go right. That’s why you don’t see that many headlines about it. Because a lot of stuff goes right. … Think of the good work that’s gone on for more than 10 years by TSA federal employees. Not one plane has been brought down by a terrorist. We’d all love to have a track record like that.
Sebelius advised agencies to reach out to media organizations throughout the nation, beyond the Washington Beltway:
Sometimes it’s easier, I find, to get outside of DC and shine a bright light on a regional office for work that’s going on. Oftentimes, the press is cynical inside the Beltway and end up on a “gotcha” kind of media. The local press is often delighted to print those stories [about employees doing good jobs and delivering services].
The press wasn’t the only villain criticized by the Cabinet members. LaHood said excessive partisanship and gridlock in Congress is hurting feds, most of whom come to government to serve a higher purpose. “Unfortunately, what we have in at least one house of Congress is people who came to do nothing,” LaHood said, referring to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. “And that’s basically what they’ve been doing for the last year and a half. I know what good Congress can do when they put their minds to it.”
Sebelius also criticized “people who have sought public office to really dismantle government. Anything involved with the government has to be bad. Whether it’s cutting out education funding, or health programs, the things that typically were seen as public good, public service, we come together to do the things we can’t do one at a time. That attitude, unfortunately, has changed among some of the people who now are serving in office, and see that any progress made on anything by government is inherently wrong.”
And the annual budget process ends up a victim of the gridlock in Congress, Tangherlini said, which makes things tougher for the feds who have to actually get things done.
Napolitano also criticized Congress’ inability to get budgets passed and the recurring threat of a government shutdown:
Oftentimes we’re operating without [a budget]. We’re trying to guess what it’s going to be. There’s no CEO in the country that has to deal with the sort of uncertainty we have about budgets, and coming right up to the edge of closing down the government — that’s not a morale builder for the federal workforce.
Tags: Partnership for Public Service, Public Service Recognition Week
IGs look for recovery act lessons
April 27th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Sean Reilly
The 2009 stimulus act may be fading into history, but its legacy will live on in the federal watchdog community. Some 16 inspectors general have joined in a “lessons learned review” from implementation of what is officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
That’s according to a recent letter from Kathleen Tighe, current chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. The review’s purpose is “to identify which actions, processes and mechanisms have been either beneficial or posed challenges” to agencies and IGs in meeting the act’s requirements. Among the specific areas to be examined: performance measures, pre-award processes and (natch) oversight.
Field work began last month; Tighe’s letter to Commerce Secretary John Bryson doesn’t say when the review is to be completed.
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, stimulus
An historic day in Washington — Discovery’s final flight
April 17th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Steve Watkins
Here are a few pics to enjoy of Discovery’s amazing flight into Washington today …
NASA Space Shuttle Discovery arrives at Dulles International Airport. Photo by John Bretschneider/Staff
The space shuttle Discovery flies her last mission over Washington DC. before landing a Dulles International Airport where the shuttle will then go on dispay at the Smithsonian April 17, 2012 in Washington DC. Thomas Brown/Staff
Spectators at the Washington Monument watch as space shuttle Discovery flies her last mission over Washington DC. before landing a Dulles International Airport where the shuttle will then go on dispay at the Smithsonian April 17, 2012 in Washington DC Thomas Brown/Staff
Congratulations, Eileen!
April 17th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Steve Watkins
We offer a big congratulations and best wishes to our friend and former colleague Eileen Sullivan at the Associated Press who yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
Many of you may remember Eileen’s great work for Federal Times back in 2003-2005 when she covered our homeland security beat. She broke a number of stories for us, including stories in late 2004 and early 2005 about how the Homeland Security Department imposed — and then later rescinded — a highly controversial policy that required employees to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to gain access to unclassified information marked “for official use only” and “sensitive but unclassified”.
Eileen won the Pulitzer yesterday (as well as, in March, the coveted Goldsmith Award for Investigative Reporting) for her work as part of a team of four AP reporters who broke an important series of stories on how the New York Police Department, assisted by the CIA, developed a sprawling covert human intelligence operation targeted at New York City’s Muslim community.
We’re very happy for you, Eileen!
Your thoughts on public service
April 16th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Margaret Harwood
May 6 marks the beginning of Public Service Recognition Week. For this occasion, Federal Times invites you to share your thoughts on the state of federal public service.
These are trying and uncertain days for federal employees. Their compensation and contribution to the nation are under scrutiny like never before. Public support for federal employees is low. The nation’s leaders are engaged in an important debate on how to readjust the size and role of government. Meanwhile, federal employees are retiring in large numbers.
We invite you to write a short, candid essay — between 300 and 500 words — on the state of federal public service and on what, if anything, should be done to improve it. The essay will be considered for publication in our May 7 issue and on our website.
Please submit your essay no later than Friday, April 20, to Markie Harwood at mharwood@federaltimes.com.
Senator MacCaskill’s grandsons ham it up for the camera.
March 29th, 2012 | Congress Defense Government reform Homeland Security Procurement Uncategorized | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
Spring Break fever was in the air today on Capitol Hill. Legislators have officially fled Washington D.C. and there will be no hearings until April 16th.
But before the final votes ensued, the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight held a hearing where Senators McCaskill, Portman and Tester grilled witnesses from the Army, The Office of Personnel and Management and The Department of Homeland Security over contractor spending.
Meanwhile, Chairwoman McCaskill’s grandsons were in attendance. My guess is they are on their own Spring Break. They sat graciously through the hearing; only occasionally trying sneak into my shot. I’m sure they were absolutely enthralled with the subject of Contractors: How Much Are They Costing the Government.
When Grandma adjourned the hearing she let the boys smack the gavel to officially call the hearing to a close – then they really spotted me. And as kids do, they hammed it up for the camera. So, cute.
Senator McCaskill speaks with OPM Chief Operating Officer, Chuck Grimes, while her grandchildren ham it up for the camera, March 29, 2012.
Issa introduces draft bill to reform federal information security
March 23rd, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Nicole Johnson
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced draft legislation Friday that would reform the 2002 Federal Information System Management Act.
The Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2012, would provide stronger oversight of federal networks, computers and other information systems by focusing on continuous monitoring of those systems, according to a news release. “FISMA had become a compliance activity, even at times when compliance appeared to supersede security.”
The draft legislation, which is open for comment, defines automated and continuous monitoring as
monitoring, with minimal human involvement, through an uninterrupted, ongoing real time, or near real-time process used to determine if the complete set of planned, required, and deployed security controls within an information system continue to be effective over time with rapidly changing information technology and threat development.
The legislation would require the agency chief information security officer to report “periodically, but no less than annually,” to the agency head about the “ effectiveness of the agency information security program; information derived from automated and continuous monitoring and threat assessments.”
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., introduced competing cybersecurity bills that also call for FISMA reforms.
OSC caseload spiking
March 20th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Stephen Losey
Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner is about to testify before a Senate subcommittee, and her prepared remarks contain some interesting stats on the growing workload at the Office of Special Counsel:
- OSC expects its overall caseload in fiscal 2012 will be 10 percent higher than last year.
- Waste, fraud and abuse whistleblower disclosures will likely be 32 percent higher this year than in fiscal 2011.
- OSC expects to see a 6 percent increase in prohibited personnel practice cases this year. In fiscal 2011, OSC received 2,583 cases, which itself was a record.
- Overall filings have jumped 30 percent over the last three years.
While OSC’s workload is increasing, Lerner said its budget remains flat, and could decline in fiscal 2013. OSC is trying to deal with those challenges by increasing its use of alternative dispute resolution to avoid costly and time-intensive litigation and recruiting Presidential Management Fellows. OSC also turned its underused library into work space for employees.
“Even with our modest budget, the OSC gets a lot of bang for the buck,” Lerner is set to testify.
Stay tuned for more information on the 2013 budgets for OSC and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement builds new type of facility
March 15th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Andy Medici
A new $32 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, is the first designed specifically to hold what the agency calls low-risk detainees, according to an ICE announcement last week.
The facility, with recreational facilities such as a gym and soccer field, allows the detainees more freedom of movement than the prisons that house most detainees, said ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen.
Karnes County paid the upfront cost and partnered with a construction company to build the facility in exchange for a contract with ICE to house about 600 detainees.
It’s a model ICE hopes to replicate: The agency is already looking to build more of the facilities in central Florida, Chicago and New Jersey, according to Christensen.
Currently the agency houses about 33,000 people on any given day in about 250 facilities across the country, mostly federal, state or local prisons. About 10 percent are private facilities, according to the agency.
Those who have been arrested for serious crimes will still be detained in traditional prisons, she said.
While it costs ICE about $422,000 a year to house a detainee at a private facility, it would cost about $50,000 or less a year at the Karnes facility, according to ICE.
ICE had come under criticism in recent years from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union over what they saw as the inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants.
Phased retirements — Good idea?
March 9th, 2012 | Uncategorized | Posted by Steve Watkins
You may soon have an additional option to consider as you approach retirement age: retiring part-time and working part-time at your current federal job.
Courtesy Goodyear, Ariz.
The Senate approved an amendment that would authorize the use of phased retirements for retirement-eligible feds. Under a phased retirement, a fed can work part-time — say, one, two, three or four days a week — and collect a partial retirement annuity for the time he or she is not working. And, throughout that time, the fed continues to earn partial retirement benefits.
These proposed phased retirements, which President Obama proposed in his 2013 budget request, could be available to as many as a half-million feds who are eligible to retire. The Obama administration estimates it could save $750 million over a decade. The CBO estimates a more conservative $465 million in savings over that time.
What do you think? Is this a good idea? Would you favor this option for yourself when you become retirement eligible (or if you already are)? Will this be a good thing for the government to do?