Government Executive - Authors - Alison Maxwell

Poor performers not a big problem, OPM says

Alison Maxwell — Tue, 09 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Let's face it. The federal government is typically viewed as having a chronic problem with poor-performing employees. In fact, even many government managers say that dealing with bad apples is a big challenge.

But a new report from the Office of Personnel Management suggests that the actual number of poor performers is quite small. Of the 1.8 million federal employees worldwide, only 3.7 percent can be considered "poor performers," according to the report "Poor Performers in Government: A Quest for the True Story."

"I am extremely pleased to report that the federal workforce is not a sanctuary for the chronically bad employee," OPM Director Janice Lachance said. "My experiences with federal civil servants at all levels and across agency lines have reinforced the fact that they are conscientious, hard-working and highly-skilled."

During March and April last year, OPM's Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness interviewed 200 supervisors who directly managed 3,114 employees. Interviewers asked supervisors to classify their employees into one of three categories: "good performer," "okay performer" and "poor performer."

Survey officials described the poor performer this way: "These are employees with whom you are seriously disappointed. You have little confidence that they will do their jobs right. You often have to redo their work, or you may have had to severely modify their assignments to give them only work that they can do, which is much less than you would otherwise want them to do. They are just not pulling their weight."

According to the report, most supervisors were "quite capable" and willing to distinguish the performance of their employees."

Managers, however, ran into difficulties resolving employee performance problems. OPM's interviews revealed that formal performance management options such as rating an employee below fully successful, developing a performance plan or initiating a performance-based action were rarely used. While supervisors reported using personal counseling more than other options, it was rated as only "somewhat useful" in slightly more than one third of the cases.

Only half of the supervisors said that the current performance management regulations, policy or guidance were helpful to them, and only five percent rated these resources as "very helpful."

Managers told OPM said they hesitate to remove poor performers because they believe they will not receive support from higher-level management and that their decisions ultimately will be reversed in the appeals process. Managers also feared retaliation in the form of discrimination complaints.

Last year, OPM issued an interactive CD-ROM called "Addressing and Resolving Poor Performance: An Interactive Tool for Supervisors." The CD-ROM and accompanying manual detail the three-step process that OPM recommends to address and resolve poor performance. For more information see OPM's Web site.

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Comings and Goings

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 08 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Every Monday on GovExec.com, Comings and Goings announces the arrivals and departures of top federal managers and executives. To submit an announcement, e-mail it to webmaster@govexec.com or fax it to 202-739-8511.

C O M I N G S

Dan L. Crippen has been appointed the director of the Congressional Budget Office. Crippen will replace June E. O'Neill, who in October told congressional leaders not to appoint her to a second term. Crippen's term runs until January 3, 2003.

President Clinton will nominate Dr. Joseph Bordogna as deputy director of the National Science Foundation. Bordogna has served as acting deputy director and chief operating officer of NSF since 1996. NSF initiates and supports long-term, merit-selected research in all scientific and engineering disciplines.

Former Maine Governor Joseph E. Brennan will take the reigns of the Federal Maritime Commission as commissioner. From 1987-1991 Brennan served as a congressman representing Maine's first district. From 1979-1987, he served as Governor. The Federal Maritime Commission regulates waterborne foreign and domestic offshore commerce, and assures fair international seaborne trade.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has named Timothy J. Galvin as administrator of the Agriculture Department's Foreign Agricultural Service. Galvin replaces Lon Hatamiya who left the department Jan. 15 to serve as the secretary of the California Department of Trade and Commerce.

Paul R. Reilly, a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board since 1995, has been reappointed to a five-year term.

G O I N G S

David Longanecker has resigned as assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the Education Department. Longanecker is the nation's longest serving assistant secretary of postsecondary education. Education Secretary Richard Riley said Longanecker "has been a tireless and very effective champion of efforts to provide Americans with universal access to affordable higher education."

Bruce McConnell will leave his position as chief of information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget to become the director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center. The center will facilitate greater information sharing among countries to promote and support regional efforts to address the Year 2000 computer problem.

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GOP offers long-term care insurance proposal

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 08 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Civil Service, Thursday introduced legislation that would offer federal employees and annuitants the option to purchase long-term care insurance, at group rates, for themselves and their families.

The Civil Service Long Term Care Benefit Act, H.R. 602, would make long-term care insurance available to federal employees, annuitants and eligible relatives through multiple carriers competing for the federal market. Beneficiaries would be provided a variety of plans from which to choose. Group discounts would keep premiums affordable, according to Scarborough. The program would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, but would be completely funded by the employees.

"Over the next 20 to 30 years, long-term care costs will continue to spiral. The federal government, the nation's largest employer, as a matter of sound public policy has responsibility to encourage all its employees to self insure for long-term care," Scarborough said. "Our bill is a free-market approach to providing coverage to employees and their families with very little cost to the federal government."

Similar legislation, S. 36, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

In early January, President Clinton urged Congress to offer federal employees long-term care insurance, as part of a larger effort to improve long-term care coverage for all Americans. Clinton's proposal has been introduced in the House (H.R. 110) by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and in the Senate (S. 57) by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Scarborough's legislation differs from the administration's in that OPM has a lesser role.

Subcommittee staff director George Nesterczuk said Scarborough's legislation allows OPM to screen insurance carriers and to provide federal employees with eight to 14 "financially sound and reputable" insurance options. From that point, the carriers are responsible for achieving sales.

The administration's bill, by contrast, proposes a "much more directive role for OPM," Nesterczuk said. OPM would put out bids for access to the federal long-term care insurance market and only allow between one and three carriers to join. Then OPM would negotiate the premiums and stipulate what kinds of coverage the carriers can offer

. Both proposals are currently under review by the House Committee on Government Reform.

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SSA on target in cutting management layers

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 05 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The Social Security Administration is making progress in its efforts to achieve a supervisor-to-staff ratio of 1-to-15 by the end of fiscal year 1999, the General Accounting Office has reported.

By the end of fiscal 1998, the agency had reduced its supervisor-to-employee ratio to 1-to-12.4 from about 1-to-7 in fiscal 1994, according to the GAO report (HEHS-99-43R). SSA has cut the number of supervisory employees at GS-12 and above from 6,800 in 1994 to 4,000 last year.

In September 1993, the National Performance Review, now the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, recommended reducing the number of management positions across the government in an attempt to streamline the bureaucracy. The NPR said the government could save $40 billion by eliminating at least 252,000 federal non-supervisory and supervisory positions over five years.

SSA has used a variety of methods to reduce its staff: early retirements, employee buyouts and reassignment of supervisory staff to newly created nonsupervisory positions.

Since 1993, SSA has created 1,900 new nonsupervisory positions-550 team leader positions in headquarters and 1,350 management support specialists and area systems coordinator positions in field offices.

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Despite downsizing, women, minorities gain top jobs

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 03 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The continued downsizing of the federal government has not affected the upward mobility of minorities and women, according to the Office of Personnel Management's annual report to Congress on the Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program.

While total employment in the executive branch decreased by 3.3 percent from September 1996 to September 1997, the percentage of African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and women at senior pay levels and the upper grades of the General Schedule increased.

"The report indicates that despite a shrinking of the federal workforce, we have not only protected the gains in diversity, but improved the representation of qualified minorities in the higher ranks of the federal labor force," OPM Director Janice Lachance said.

Overall employment in the GS 9-12 ranks decreased by 3.1 percent from 1996 to 1997, but minority representation increased at those levels from 24.8 percent in 1996 to 25.4 percent in 1997. The number of minorities at the GS 13-15 levels rose by 2,227 from 1996 to 1997, an increase of 4.4 percent. Minority representation at senior pay levels rose by 7.6 percent during the same time period, while the overall federal workforce at senior pay levels increased only 2.2 percent.

African American representation at senior pay levels rose from 6.3 percent in 1996 to 6.5 percent in 1997. African Americans rose from 8 percent of employees at the GS 13-15 levels in 1996 to 8.3 percent in 1997, according to the report.

Hispanic representation also increased at the senior levels, rising from 2.4 percent to 2.6 percent, and at the GS 13-15 levels, from 3.4 percent to 3.6 percent. Asian/Pacific Islanders represented 1.9 percent of the senior pay levels in 1997, up from 1.7 percent in 1996.

Native Americans represented 0.6 percent of employees at senior pay levels in 1996, compared to 0.7 percent in 1997, while their representation in the GS 13-15 levels remained the same. The representation of women at senior pay levels increased from 19.9 percent to 20.9 percent.

According to the report, Hispanics and women are the only groups that are underrepresented in the federal workforce. Hispanics make up 11 percent of the civilian labor force, while they represent only 6.2 percent of the federal workforce. Women represent 46.4 percent of the civilian labor force and 42.8 percent of the federal labor force.

OPM has launched a nine-point Hispanic employment initiative to encourage federal agencies to improve the representation of Hispanics. The agency has also issued a guide to recruiting and retaining women in the workforce.

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Budget includes 4.4 percent federal pay raise

Alison Maxwell — Tue, 02 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

President Clinton's proposed fiscal 2000 budget includes the largest federal pay raise since 1981.

The President proposed a 4.4 percent military and civilian pay raise next year, and 3.9 percent raises each year from 2001 to 2004. Although Clinton originally proposed a 3.1 percent increase for fiscal 1999, employees received a 3.6 percent increase.

Still, federal union leaders, who have called for closing the pay gap between federal and private employees, expressed disappointment with the announcement.

Bob Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, urged that both the administration and Congress move toward full implementation of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).

Tobias said that projected large surpluses in the federal budget "make it appropriate, now more than ever," to reward the "continuing contributions of federal employees by giving them a substantial pay increase."

Congress attempted to address the pay gap in 1990 when it passed FEPCA. Under the act, a formula was created to close the gap over ten years beginning in 1994. The pay gap at that time was calculated at an average of about 28 percent. FEPCA has never been fully implemented, however. The Clinton administration has used a loophole in the law to issue smaller raises each year because it believes the FEPCA methodology is flawed.

For example, the FEPCA formula called for a 13 percent average raise in 1999, according to the Federal Salary Council. Instead, President Clinton issued a 3.6 percent average raise.

The Office of Personnel Management expects to develop comprehensive legislative changes to federal pay and benefits by 2002. In the meantime, OPM is working on an alternative way to determine pay raises for 2000.

Clinton's budget also included the administration's most recent employment figures. In 1998, civilian agencies had 1.86 million employees, 16,000 fewer than in 1997. The Defense Department employed 693,000 civilians, 30,000 fewer than the year before. Thirty years ago civilian agencies employed 2.3 million people, while DoD employed 1.3 million people.

The budget projects that the civilian federal workforce will total 1.8 million in 1999 and 1.82 million in 2000. Defense Department estimates are 686,000 in 1999 and 663,000 in 2000.

Clinton's proposed budget for the Office of Personnel Management totaled $14.5 billion, $900 million more than than fiscal 1999's proposal. OPM Director Janice Lachance said she was "very pleased" with Clinton's proposal.

"This funding would allow us to continue providing the leadership and services that the federal community has come to rely upon to protect the merit systems, strengthen performance-oriented compensation, support family-friendly policies, and promote workforce diversity and veterans' preference," Lachance said in a press release.

OPM's budget proposal indicates that the agency will place special emphasis in 1999 and 2000 on improving federal employment opportunities for adults with disabilities and Hispanic Americans, and to enhance the government's ability to recruit and retain computer security professionals.

The administration also proposed a new program for long-term care insurance for federal employees and retirees.

Overall customer satisfaction with the delivery of retirement program services remained high during 1998, as 90 percent of customers reported that they are generally or very satisfied with OPM's overall service, according to the budget proposal.

Customer satisfaction was also high in the health benefits program. Most recent customer surveys indicated that 87 percent of responding enrollees expressed satisfaction with their health plans. The 1998 customer satisfaction survey also showed that more than 75 percent of human resources specialists were satisfied with policy-setting leadership on pay and leave administration.

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Comings and Goings

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 01 Feb 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

C O M I N G S

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Jane Garvey has named Daniel J. Mehan the agency's first chief information officer (CIO). As CIO, Mehan will serve as the principal FAA advisor on information technology and will direct strategic planning activities for information technology across the agency.

President Clinton has appointed Rudy de Leon, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, to serve as a member of the National Partnership Council, which advises the President on matters involving labor-management relations in the executive branch and in promoting labor-management partnerships.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has been busy making new appointments. Timothy Galvin is the new administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service, where he will oversee the administration of programs to foster exports of American agricultural, fish and forest products. Sally Thompson, the department's chief financial officer, will be taking on some new duties as acting assistant secretary for administration. Thompson will oversee the poliy and coordination of USDA's administrative activities, including human resources, ethics and procurement.

President Clinton will nominate Robert W. Gee as assistant secretary for fossil energy at the Department of Energy. In the position, Gee will be responsible for research and development programs involving fossil fuels.

The Treasury Department's Financial Service Commissioner Richard L. Gregg has selected Bettsy H. Lane as assistant commissioner for federal finance. Prior to her appointment, Lane led FMS' Cash Management Directorate for five years.

G O I N G S

Capt. Chip McCord will no longer serve as the Navy's supervisor of salvage and diving and director of ocean engineering. During McCord's four-year tenure, his organization completed more than 36 ship salvage operations supporting the U.S. Coast Guard and foreign nations.

U.S. Customs Service Special Agent in Charge Raphael Lopez, Customs Management Service Director D. Lynn Gordon and Port Director at Miami International Airport Jayson Ahern have been transferred out of Miami as part of a series of reforms "designed to renew confidence in the agency and eliminate unfairness in promotions and discipline," The Miami Herald has reported. All three were included last month in a Herald report on favoritism within Customs, which detailed their rise to top-level positions despite records of failed management.

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New web site creates military quality of life line

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 29 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Military personnel and their families have a new "lifeline" to quality of life information.

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig Wednesday launched a new Web site, www.lifelines4qol.org, which is designed to allow service members in all braches of the armed forces all around the world obtain information.

"There is no organization in the world that has people that are so widespread," Danzig said during a press conference to unveil the site.

LIFElines provides quality of life information, support services and access around the clock via two major information channels: the LIFElines Internet Component, "QOL Mall," and the LIFELines Broadcast Component, QOL Broadcast Network.

When the "QOL Mall" is fully operational, users can "go shopping" to find information on housing, register for school and training courses, receive couseling services, obtain emergency financial assistance and medical care and purchase uniforms.

The QOL Broadcast Network will use video technology to distribute information via satellite broadcasting. The official launching of the Web site was beamed live on the Internet from a Navy television studio.

The site was designed for a military partnership led by the Navy, but also including the Marines, Coast Guard and the Defense Department's Executive Committee on Quality of Life. LIFElines Executive Director Randy Eltringham told The Washington Post she expects the Army to join as a partner in the site in the near future.

The military has spent $500,000 to create the site's basic architecture. Some portions of the site remain under construction and are unavailable.

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Senators push for regulatory cost-benefit reviews

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 27 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

A group of senators, led by Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., last week introduced legislation that would require the government to report on the costs and benefits of federal regulatory programs to the public.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sen. John Breaux, D-La., joined Thompson in introducing the Regulatory Right-to-Know Act of 1999. Last year, Thompson introduced the key provisions of a similar bill as an amendment to the omnibus 1999 appropriations bill, which passed in October.

It required the Office of Management and Budget to provide Congress with a report on the total annual benefits and costs of federal regulatory programs. The provision that passed only made the report a one-time requirement, for the Year 2000.

This session's legislation would require the federal government to provide reports on the benefits and costs of federal regulatory programs each year. It also would require OMB to analyze the impact of federal rules on small businesses, the private sector, government, wages and economic growth.

"This bill will hold federal regulators accountable and reduce needless waste and red tape," Thompson said. "It will help us find ways to better protect public health, safety and the environment and to ensure a stable economy."

Thompson said federal regulation costs about $700 billion a year, or $7,000 per American household.

"Every American has a right to know what their government is doing," Breaux said. "The goal of our bill is simple-to give Americans and Congress more information about what and how our government is regulating."

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Comings and Goings

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 25 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

C O M I N G S

Richard Maison has been named the Defense Logistics Information Service's deputy for information service. As deputy, Maison will work with DLIS Commander Marine Col. Robert L. Songer, assisting him with the oversight of DLIS' logistical operations, which includes maintaining the world's largest automated logistics information system.

Larry Fairchild is the new director of the CIA's Office of Advanced Analytical Tools. The office provides intelligence analysts with computer technology to sort out information critical to national security. Fairchild has been with the CIA since 1974.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has hired three new staffers. Virginia Canter, former White House associate counsel, will provide legal support for the endowment. Roberta Heine is the new director of the Office of Public Affairs and Nancy Sturm will head the Office of Enterprise.

G O I N G S

Robert C. Bogusky, a manager with the IRS' information systems department, is retiring after 34 years.

William Y.T. Takasaki has retired from his position as deputy of the Defense Logistics Information Service after more than four decades of federal service.

The National Science Foundation's Shirley Day is retiring next month after 33 years in government service. She has been a legislative specialist and has also worked on Capitol Hill.

K U D O S

Defense department employee Frederick Tidwell received a letter of recognition from the Defense Department's inspector general's office for his efforts in uncovering procurement violations involving a former federal employee and a vendor doing business with the government. At the time of the investigation, Tidwell was chief of the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia's food buying office in Chicago. He is now chief of DSCP's Produce Buying Office in Nashville.

Rear Admiral Paul G. Gaffney, chief of naval research and director of Navy Test and Evaluation, has been elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

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Supreme Court rejects census sampling plan

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 25 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The Supreme Court Monday ruled that the Clinton administration cannot use statistical sampling methods for the 2000 census.

The federal census law does not allow for the use of statistical methods intended to make the population count more accurate, the justices said in a 5-4 ruling. When the Census Act was amended in 1976, "At no point ... did a single member of Congress suggest that the amendments would so fundamentally change the manner in which the bureau could calculate the population for purposes of apportionment," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court.

O'Connor said "it tests the limits of reason" to suggest that Congress would have been silent in enacting "what would arguably be the single most significant change in the method of conducting the decennial census since its inception."

The ruling, which experts say will have a major effect on the way congressional districts are drawn, is the culmination of a long partisan battle. The dispute started when the Census Bureau announced a plan to use two forms of statistical sampling in the 2000 census to address what officials said was a chronic problem of undercounting of some groups, including certain minorities, children, and renters.

Democrats embraced the idea. Minorities and inner-city residents, who tend to vote Democratic, made up a large share of the estimated 4 million people missed by the 1990 count. Republicans opposed sampling. People who tend to vote Republican also are more likely to voluntarily respond to the census.

Two lower courts ruled the government's sampling proposal unlawful last year, saying a federal census law barred adjustment of census figures used for dividing the House members among the states. The Clinton administration said the government has been forced to estimate at least part of the population in each census since 1940, but the Republicans argued that the Constitution allows only a one-by-one head count.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart characterized the decision as a "limited" ruling. "It did not deal with either the constitutional issue or whether statistical sampling could be used for things like redistricting and the apportionment of federal funds within states," he said.

Commerce Secretary William Daley said that while he was "disappointed" with the decision, the Census Bureau would move ahead with its sampling plans because the court's decision only prohibits the use of sampling for House reapportionment.

The Census Bureau is scheduled to launch its count on April 1, 2000.

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Governmental Affairs subpanel members named

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 22 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Wednesday announced subcommittee assignments for the 106th Congress.

Thad Cochran, R-Miss., will chair the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, will serve as the ranking minority member. Other members include Ted Stevens, R-Ark.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.; Max Cleland, D-Ga.; and John Edwards, D-N.C.

George Voinovich, R-Ohio, will chair the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., will serve as the ranking member. Other members include: William Roth, R-Del.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and Torricelli.

Collins will chair the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and Levin will serve as the ranking minority member. Other members include Roth, Stevens, Voinovich, Domenici, Cochran, Specter, Cleland, Akaka, Durbin and Edwards.

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Comings and Goings

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 18 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

C O M I N G S

Jerold R. Mande has been named deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Mande will work with Assistant Secretary Charles N. Jeffress in policy making, oversight and management of the agency.

President Clinton has named Dr. Cheryl L. Shavers as under secretary for technology at the Commerce Department. Shavers, of Santa Clara, Calif., is currently a senior manager heading the microprocessor products sector of Intel Corporation.

Gary S. Guzy has been nominated by President Clinton to serve as general counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency. Guzy has been counselor to EPA administrator Carol Browner since 1995.

President Clinton will nominate Richard Barnes to serve as director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Barnes has served as deputy director of the service since 1996.

David Williams will serve as inspector general for tax administration at the Treasury Department. From 1996 to 1998, Williams served as the inspector general of the Social Security Administration.

Elaine Guiney has been appointed to head the Small Business Administration's Massachusetts district office. Guiney will manage the agency's financial assistance, business development and counseling programs in Massachusetts.

Vickie Nadolski has been named National Weather Service director for the Western Region Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Louis Uccellini will serve as director for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Camp Springs, Md.

G O I N G S

Lorraine Lewis will leave her position as general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management to become the inspector general of the Education Department. Lewis had served at OPM since 1993.

Defense Commissary Agency Director Richard Beale has announced his retirement. Beale became the agency's first civilian director on October 1, 1996.

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Mileage reimbursement to drop in April

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 15 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Federal employees who choose to use their own cars when traveling on government business will be reimbursed 1.5 cents less per mile beginning in April.

Feds will receive 31 cents per mile instead of the 32.5 cents per mile they currently receive, General Services Administration Travel and Transportation Management Division Director Bill Rivers said.

GSA's new rates will match the national per-mile driving rate set this month by the IRS. The new IRS rate will not go into effect until April 1, because the IRS wants to give employers time to implement the new rate.

Runzheimer International, a Wisconsin-based management consulting firm specializing in travel costs, set the standard for the IRS. By law, GSA's per mile reimbursement rate cannot exceed the IRS' rate.

"Lower gasoline prices are one of the principle reasons for the drop," according to Larry Snyder, director of government development at Runzheimer. "Also, 1999 model vehicle prices have remained quite stable or even dropped in some cases, causing projected depreciation costs to moderate."

GSA increased the per mile reimbursement to 32.5 cents in October 1998.

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DoD says key systems will be Y2K-ready

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 15 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The Department of Defense will have all of its more than 2,000 mission-critical computer systems prepared for the year 2000 by the end of 1999, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said Thursday.

Hamre said that DoD will spend about $2.5 billion getting its systems ready. As of Thursday, the Pentagon reported that 81 percent, or 1,673, of its critical systems were Y2K-compliant.

"It's been a very extensive effort," Hamre said at a press conference. "There isn't a magic technology key that unlocks this problem."

The Clinton administration set March 1999 as the deadline for all government computers to be ready for 2000. By that deadline, DoD hopes to have 93 percent of its systems compliant, Hamre said. In the department's original management plan, which was updated in December, the Pentagon set a target of December 31, 1998 for the completion of all mission-critical Y2K work.

"The Secretary really motivated the solution," Hamre said. "When he turned to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he said this is a war we're fighting and rarely do you know the time, the place and the date of precisely when the enemy will attack, but now we do know it's at midnight the 31st of December."

In November, Rep. Stephen Horn, chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, criticized DoD for moving too slowly on Y2K repairs. He gave the department a D- on his quarterly Y2K report card. As of November, the department had only completed Y2K work on 53 percent of its systems, DoD reported to the Office of Management and Budget.

"It goes without saying that there is zero tolerance for error when you are dealing with the defense of our nation," Horn said.

Hamre said the department will spend the next year continuing operational testing and contingency planning.

"We're not finished yet," he said. "We've got a great deal to do."

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Clinton orders high-tech training

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 13 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

President Clinton Tuesday signed an executive order encouraging agencies to use innovative technology in their training programs.

Vice President Al Gore announced the new initiative at a summit called "21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs." Gore said the forum was designed to help "working Americans get the skills they need to succeed and to ensure employers get the skilled workers they need to stay competitive."

Gore, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, Commerce Secretary William Daley and Office of Personnel Management Director Janice Lachance joined business, education and labor leaders at the meeting.

Lachance said that as the nation's largest employer, the federal government will become a model user of technology for training.

Lachance will head the President's Task Force on Federal Training Technology, which will, according to the executive order, make training opportunities an integral part of continuing employment in the federal government.

Within 18 months of the order, the task force must develop and recommend to Clinton a policy to use technology to improve training opportunities for employees. Specifically, the task force will analyze the use of technology in existing training programs, form partnerships among key federal agencies and state and local governments and recommend standards for training software purchased by agencies and contractors.

The group will also identify cross-agency training areas that could benefit from new instructional technologies and recommend changes to existing procurement laws to encourage technology in training.

Also as part of the order, each federal agency must include as part of its budget a set of goals to provide the "highest quality and most efficient training opportunities" to its employees.

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TSP's C Fund gains 28 percent in 1998

Alison Maxwell — Tue, 12 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

During 1998, the Thrift Savings Plan's C Fund, which invests in common stocks, gained more than 28 percent, according to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

The board reported that in December, the C Fund gained 5.76 percent, following a 6.04 percent rise in November.

After gaining 0.56 percent in November, the F Fund (fixed-income bonds) gained 0.3 percent in December. The G Fund (government securities) stayed relatively stable with a return rate of 0.43 percent, up slightly from November's return of 0.42 percent. For all of 1998, the F Fund increased 8.7 percent and the G Fund 5.7 percent.

The monthly C, F and G Fund returns reflect net earnings on the changing balances invested during the month.

During an open season that runs until Jan. 31, federal employees can start contributing to a TSP account or change account contribution levels. Participants can also change the way future payroll contributions are invested in the three TSP funds. The previous open season ended July 31, 1998.

For more TSP information, see GovExec.com's Thrift Savings Plan update.

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Comings and Goings

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 11 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

C O M I N G S

Former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., the first black woman elected to the Senate, has taken a part-time job to help promote a Department of Education effort to raise money for crumbling schools. Education Secretary Richard Riley appointed Moseley-Braun as a $56-an-hour part time adviser on efforts to increase federal spending for school construction. The job will involve talking to architects and business owners to rally support for refurbishing schools.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala has appointed Jane Browning as executive director of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation. Browning comes from the National Association of Social Workers, where she was director of the Division of Membership Services and Publications.

President Clinton will nominate Armando Falcon, Jr. to serve as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Falcon has served for eight years on the legal staff of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, reaching the position of general counsel in 1995.

Benjamin Finzelis joining the Energy Department as director of communications for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In this position, Finzel will develop strategies to inform the public about programs to encourage the development and use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck has announced that Vaughn Stokes will become the agency's director of engineering. Stokes will be responsible for overseeing engineering activities at the nation's 155 national forests.

G O I N G S

Paul Homan , the Clinton administration's special trustee for American Indians, resigned in protest this week. He charged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt with obstructing his efforts to untangle billions of dollars in mismanaged Indian trust fund accounts.

Peggy Brown, head of the Postal Rate Commission's docket section, retired last week after 33 years federal service.

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Commission criticizes embassy security efforts

Alison Maxwell — Mon, 11 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The executive and legislative branches have failed to provide adequate resources to reduce the vulnerability of U.S. embassies to terrorist attacks, according to a special commission appointed to investigate last year's African embassy bombings.

"Responsibility for this failure can be attributed to several administrations and their agencies, including the Department of State, National Security Council and Office of Management and Budget, as well as the U.S. Congress," according to the report of the panel, chaired by retired Adm. William J. Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at a press conference Friday that she accepts responsibility for the failure to improve security at American diplomatic missions. "It reminds us all that no matter how much we care, no matter how much we do, we can always do more when the lives of our people are on the line," she said.

Last August, terrorist bombers killed 224 people and injured more than 5,000 in and around U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. After the bombings, Albright appointed two review boards to investigate the bombings and recommend improved security systems and procedures.

The report released Friday concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies detected threats of terrorist strikes against the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in the two years before last year's bombings, but intelligence was too vague. The commission said U.S. officials relied too much on this "warning intelligence," and were too relaxed in their efforts to safeguard the buildings.

The report did, however, cite steps the State Department has taken since August to strengthen perimeter defense at overseas facilities, increase security personnel and speed up necessary construction and repair efforts.

Albright and the board agreed that the measures are only the first steps toward what is required to ensure embassy security.

"We must undertake a comprehensive and long-term strategy, including sustained funding for enhanced security measures; for long-term costs for increased security personnel; and for a capital building program based on an assessment of requirements to meet the new range of global terrorist threats," the report said.

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New toll-free number to provide Y2K help

Alison Maxwell — Fri, 08 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Consumers can access information about the Y2K problem through a new toll-free information line introduced Thursday by the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

Millennium bug information of interest to consumers in areas such as power, telephones, banking, government programs and household products can be otained by dialing 1-888-USA-4-Y2K.

"This toll-free line is a key part of our ongoing efforts to make available information that will help Americans respond appropriately to the Y2K problem as we move through this year," Council Chair John Koskinen said. "We are committed to providing consumers the latest information on how the problem may or may not affect government services, banks, household appliances, and other things they depend upon in their daily lives."

Government agencies, private companies and industry groups will provide information for the line, which will be supported by the General Services Administration's Federal Information Center (FIC) and the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Pre-recorded information will be available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Information specialists will staff the line from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.

"Consumers who want to know how computers in the Year 2000 will continue to deliver Social Security checks or how airlines will handle the Y2K problem now have a new tool," said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

At the end of January, the FIC will activate a fax-on-demand system which will provide callers with printed information on the Y2K problem.

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Prescription drug snafu spoils feds' New Year

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 06 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Nearly 100,000 federal employees, retirees and dependents enrolled in the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan were greeted with a not so happy new year last week.

On Jan. 1, computers at pharmacies around the country began denying prescription drug authorizations to enrollees in the federal Blue Cross plan. Over the next 20 hours, 96,531 members at 47,000 pharmacies were unable to get their prescriptions filled, The Washington Post reported. About 10,000 of the prescription rejections occurred in the Washington area.

Pharmacists at Giant Food Inc., a regional supermarket and drug store chain, noticed the pattern of rejections and alerted Blue Cross-Blue Shield's drug benefit manager, PCS Health Systems Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz.

A PCS apokesperson said no patients were denied their medications, because pharmacists made special arrangements with customers or customers paid cash and will be reimbursed.

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Administration unveils plan for safe digital government

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 06 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

The Clinton administration unveiled a tool kit Tuesday designed to help agencies implement a directive to provide more of their services over the Internet without sacrificing security or privacy.

On Tuesday, the administration released "Access With Trust," a comprehensive booklet detailing how the federal government can promote and use "public key infrastructure" (PKI) systems to protect electronic interaction both internally and externally. A PKI is a sophisticated encryption system using digital signatures that assures electronic information is protected while being entered, during transit and when stored in a computer.

Vice President Al Gore's Access America manifesto instructed agencies to go digital by increasing citizen and business access to government services via the Internet. Some federal officials have expressed concerns about security and privacy issues raised by the effort to move federal services online.

"Access with Trust" is designed to show citizens and government officials that PKI can work in government, according to Andrew Boots, a privacy and security expert at the National Partnership for Reinventing Government.

The report describes 26 agency efforts to develop PKI systems. The Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office, for example, has been working to use digital signature technology to improve its Electronic Patent Application Filing System. The Defense Department's Defense Information Systems Agency will use a PKI to ease the coordination of travel.

Richard Guida, chairman of the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee, said he hopes senior executives will read the guide and decide that PKI is the way to solve their problems.

Guida conceded, however, that the PKI "gestation period" is continuing. "PKI is never going to gel until you apply a stimulus to it," he said. "You have to exercise the muscle in order to make it grow stronger."

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Clinton to seek Defense budget boost

Alison Maxwell — Tue, 05 Jan 1999 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

President Clinton will propose a $12 billion boost in defense spending for the year 2000-the largest increase in defense spending in a decade.

"We want our armed forces to remain ready to deploy rapidly in any crisis, and that is what this effort will assure, by funding joint exercises, flight training, badly needed spare parts and recruiting for critical positions," Clinton said Saturday during his weekly radio address. "We want our forces to remain the best equipped in the world into the next century, and that is what this effort will assure, by paying for the next generation of ships, planes and weapons systems."

The nation's top military commanders have been pressuring Clinton and Congress to boost armed forces spending.

In an October letter to Senate Armed Forces Committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Adm. Jay L. Johnson, the Navy's chief of staff, wrote: "While service to country has always made heavy demands on our people, we cannot continually ask that they do more with less or seem uncaring to the hardships they endure."

Commanders told McCain the Pentagon needs an infusion of up to $27.5 billion a year to restore American forces to a full state of preparedness. Clinton's proposal will include a total increase of about $110 billion over the next six years.

If approved by Congress, the increase would fund a 4.4 percent across-the-board pay raise, the largest pay increase since 1984. It would also fund a round of new jet fighters, attack helicopters and warships. Pentagon officials said $2.5 billion would be used for pay and benefit increases, while $2 billion would be used for next year's deployment of nearly 7,000 troops in Bosnia.

The proposal would bring defense spending in the next fiscal year to $296 billion, up from this year's budget proposal of $265 billion.

"We must undertake this effort today so that our nation will remain strong and secure tomorrow. We must do it as well because we have the most sacred obligation to those who accept dangers and hardships on our behalf," Clinton said.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the proposal "falls way short" of the needs targeted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Warner told The Washington Post that Clinton was "very clever" to unveil his plan just before a planned hearing on military readiness before his committee on Tuesday.

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The Pay and Benefits Rollercoaster

Alison Maxwell — Wed, 30 Dec 1998 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Federal employees took a ride on the pay and benefits rollercoaster this year, and it was quite a rickety ride.

The best example of this phenomenon was the performance of the Thrift Savings Plan, which managed to throw everyone for a loop in 1998.

In August, the TSP's C Fund dropped a whopping 14.5 percent, the biggest one-month fall since the creation of the TSP a decade ago.

The steep decline in the C Fund-which invests in common stocks-was due to the shaky performance of the stock market at the end of the month. In just one day, Aug. 31, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 513 points.

The C Fund swiftly recovered from August's drop, gaining 6.3 percent in September.

Changes to the federal retirement and health benefits systems provided more twists and turns in 1998.

In October 1997, a last-minute addition to the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill provided for an open season to allow employees in the Civil Service Retirement System to switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System. After reviewing the bill, President Clinton used his line-item veto power (later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) to cancel the CSRS-FERS switch. Administration officials had estimated the proposal would cost agencies $854 million over five years. The National Treasury Employees Union filed suit against Clinton's action.

A federal judge later approved an agreement between NTEU and the Justice Department to rescind President Clinton's veto. The administration then asked Congress to cancel the open season in its fiscal 1999 budget proposal, but Senators and Representatives did not do so. Feds breathed a sigh of relief.

By the end of the year, it seemed like switching plans was proving to be less popular than initially thought. With five weeks remaining before the deadline to switch plans, less than 1 percent of the more than 1.1 million workers eligible to change had opted to do so.

"We've been a little underwhelmed," acknowledged William Flynn, associate OPM director for retirement and insurance, at a Nov. 17 conference of the International Personnel Management Association.

In September, OPM added another knot to federal employees' already queasy stomachs, when it announced that premiums under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will rise an average of 10.2 percent in 1999, the largest increase in nearly a decade.

Employees' costs will rise 7.4 percent in 1999, OPM said. Employees' agencies will cover the rest of the premium increases. The government covers 72 percent of the weighted average cost of health plans, under a new formula Congress approved last year for splitting insurance costs between employees and the government.

The average employee will pay $3.39 more every two weeks, while the government will pay $12.07 more.

Members of Congress immediately questioned the hike, while OPM said employees could reduce the effects of the increase by shifting to lower-cost plans.

However, employees will have fewer plans from which to choose, because 65 plans decided to stop covering federal employees in 1999. In 1998, 350 health plans offered insurance under FEHBP. In 1999, only 285 plans will participate in the program. OPM attributes the decline to shakeouts and consolidations in the health-care industry.

President Clinton did bring some good news to federal workers and veterans alike. In a Veterans Day ceremony, Clinton announced he had signed the Veterans Programs Enhancement Act (H.R. 4110), which gives disabled veterans the same 1.3 percent cost-of-living increase given to Social Security and veteran pension beneficiaries.

Clinton also signed into law the Federal Employees Life Insurance Improvement Act, which has the potential to provide new life insurance opportunities for federal workers.

The bill, H.R. 2675, directs OPM to present to Congress legislation offering federal employees group universal life insurance, group variable life insurance and additional voluntary accidental and dismemberment insurance policies.

Federal retirees didn't fare as well. They will get a 1.3 percent cost-of-living increase in 1999, the lowest since 1986. The Clinton administration says the small increase is due to low inflation that has kept wages and prices down.

On the pay front, feds are sitting tight, waiting anxiously to climb the compensation hill.

President Clinton has approved a 3.6 percent pay raise for federal employees and military personnel in 1999. But Clinton has proposed a 4.4 percent raise in 2000.

Top-tier Senior Executive Service members will not get a raise in 1999, but they will be eligible for bigger bonuses, under a provision included in the Treasury-Postal spending bill. The cash award that accompanies Presidential Rank Awards will also rise in 1999.

Still, groups that represent civil servants before Congress have one priority in 1999: Better pay.

"We have three priorities: Pay, pay and pay," said Senior Executives Association President Carol Bonosaro, who represents the federal government's highest-ranked employees.

"Our goal for the 106th Congress is the same as for 105th, and that is to focus the Congress on the tremendous federal employee pay gap and have Congress come to grips with the fact that in order to attract and retain a qualified and dedicated workforce, it has to pay for it," National Treasury Employees Union President Robert Tobias said.

Buckle your seatbelts.

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Clinton says Social Security is ready for Y2K

Alison Maxwell — Tue, 29 Dec 1998 00:00:00 -0500

amaxwell@govexec.com

Social Security recipients can rest easy, because the Social Security Administration's computer systems have been certified 100 percent ready for the year 2000, President Clinton said Monday.

"The millennium bug will not delay the payment of Social Security checks by a single day," Clinton said in a White House ceremony.

Clinton said the agency's systems have been tested and validated by a panel of independent experts. "The system works, it is secure. And therefore, older Americans can feel more secure," he said.

Kathy Adams, the Social Security Administration's assistant deputy commissioner for systems, said it took 2,800 workers, including 700 programmers, to complete the agency's Y2K preparations.

Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Information, Management and Technology, said he was pleased with the President's announcement and noted that SSA has received an "A" in his committee's last three report cards on agencies' Y2K efforts. However, Horn noted that SSA has been working on the problem since 1989.

"We hope that the President will continue to focus on this critical issue, since there are thousands of interconnections between federal, state and local governments and the private and non-profit sectors," Horn said in a statement. "And what about the departments and agencies which have started their remediation efforts only within the last few years? The Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Defense, Transportation and State are all failing in their Y2K repair efforts. The administration must focus on these problem agencies ... A little over one year remains. Time is running short."

The Clinton administration has set a goal of ensuring that all critical federal computer systems are Y2K compliant by March 31, 1999.

The Small Business Administration was the first agency to complete year 2000 work on all of its critical systems, ensuring that loans to 24 million small businesses nationwide will not be interrupted in January 2000, according to the Clinton administration.

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