News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

SECTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

U.S. Navy International Logistics Symposium

Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton will be a guest speaker at a three-day International Logistics Symposium sponsored by the Navy International Programs Office in conjunction with the American Society of Naval Engineers, July 14-16, 1997, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Crystal City, VA. Representatives from government, industry and foreign nations will meet to exchange ideas and review exhibits on a variety of logistics topics related to the Navy's Foreign Military Sales program. For program information contact NAVSEA (703) 602-9000.

DTIC Annual Conference

The Defense Technical Information Center is presenting its Annual Users Meeting and Training Conference on Nov. 3-6, 1997 at the DoubleTree Hotel, National Airport, Arlington, Va. The conference theme is Information in the New Millenium. Contact Ms. Julia Foscue at 703-767-8236 or by e-mail at jfoscue@dtic.mil.

The following news summaries are from OPM AM, the daily newsletter of the Office of Personnel Management. OPM AM is available on OPM Mainstreet, the agency's electronic bulletin board, at 202-606-4800.

**TSP OPEN SEASON**The Thrift Savings Plan Open Season runs through July 31. During this time, you may begin contributing to the TSP, change the amount of your TSP contributions, or allocate TSP contributions to your account among the three investment funds. To get more information and download the forms you will need, click here.

THE FEDERAL DIARY--"White-collar federal workers can look forward to a January raise of about 2.8 percent. This year, civil servants in the Washington-Baltimore region got a 3.33 percent salary increase" (The Washington Post).

YEAR 2000--The federal government could face a partial computer crash in the year 2000 because it is moving too slowly to fix its machines so they will understand dates that don't begin with "19" according to a growing number of technology specialists (The Washington Post).

DC PENSIONS--Rep. John L. Mica is objecting to a plan to turn the District's unfunded pension liability over to the federal government arguing that the move would cost taxpayers $35 billion over 40 years (The Washington Times).

RAISE FOR CONGRESS--Top House Republicans and Democrats yesterday privately discussed a pay raise for members of Congress but reached no decision, a participant said (The Washington Times).

VA--The government's $21 billion-a-year veterans benefits program has been severely criticized in a draft report by the National Academy of Public Administration which portrays Veterans Affairs officials as incompetent managers whose actions ultimately could disrupt the flow of government checks to about 4 million people (The Washington Post).

NOAA--Plans to abolish the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would mark the first time in the nation's history that an entire uniformed service has been abolished. Administration officials believe they would save at least $2 million a year by converting the corps, which receives military-style pay and retirement benefits, into regular civil service jobs (The Washington Post).